LB 



Issued October 1, 1910. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 

. OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS— BULLETIN 232. 

A. C. TRUE, Director. 



CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOLS 

AND 

ORGANIZATION OF A 
COUNTY SYSTEM. 



GEORGE W. KNORR, 

Special Field Agent, Bureau of Statistics. 



ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN COOPERATION 
WITH THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1910. 




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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
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http://www.archive.org/details/consolidatedruraOOknor 






1294 Issued October 1, 1910. 

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 

OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS— BULLETIN 232. 

A. C. TRUE, Director. 



CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOLS 

AND 

ORGANIZATION OF A 
COUNTY SYSTEM. 



GEORGE W. KNORR, 

Special Field Agent, Bureau of Statistics. 



ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN COOPERATION 
WITH THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1910. 




^ 

V 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. V^ ^ b 



V. S. Department of Agriculture, 

Office of Experiment Stations, 
Washington. D. C, July 18, 1910. 

Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith a bulletin on Consoli- 
dated Rural Schools, by George W. Knorr, special field agent of the 
Bureau of Statistics. This bulletin was prepared under the Chief of 
the Bureau of Statistics and by him transmitted to this Office for 
publication in the series of agricultural education publications. 

The statistical investigation upon which this bulletin is based ex- 
tended over more than three years, and was made by Mr. Knorr 
under the direction of Assistant Secretary of Agriculture W. M. 
Hays. In the course of the investigation Mr. Knorr visited several 
hundred district schools and a large proportion of the typical con- 
solidated rural schools recently established in this country. His 
statement that 95 per cent of the farmers who have thoroughly tried 
the consolidated rural school give it their indorsement and support, 
should command universal attention. 

These consolidated schools are gradually supplanting the one-room 
rural schools; they at once supply excellent graded eight-year ele- 
mentary courses and one or more years of high-school work; and 
provide conditions under which trained teachers may instruct in 
agriculture and home economics. Many are now teaching these sub- 
jects in a thorough manner and thus lead in the long desired de- 
velopment of our belated system of schools for rural communities. 

Through these schools opportunities are afforded the Department 
of Agriculture and the state experiment stations for disseminating the 
results of their researches; new facilities are also afforded for the 
distribution of new varieties of plants and seeds which are being 
created by breeding. 

The information contained in this bulletin will be valuable to the 
scientists of this Department in enabling them to establish vital re- 
lations with country-life schools and aid in the movement to carry 
to every farm boy and girl the rich stores of knowledge now being 
rapidly accumulated through agricultural research. It will also be 
of great value to educators throughout the country who are interested 
in bringing about a better organization of country-life schools. I 
therefore recommend its publication as Bulletin 232 of this Office. 
Respectfully, 



A. C. True, 

Director. 



Hon. W. M. Hays, 

Acting Secretary of Agriculture. 

No. 232 

OCT 85 f§to 



o 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 7 

Advantages, extent, and progress of rural-school consolidation 7 

Object, scope, and method of investigation 16 

Description of the consolidated rural school 23 

The typical consolidated school 28 

Consolidated graded school 30 

Union school 30 

The consolidated school in country-life education 31 

The consolidated school a democratic institution 32 

Cost of maintenance of consolidated schools and district schools 33 

Financing and cost of rural schools 33 

Necessity of supplementing state and county school funds by local 

funds 33 

State aid to consolidated schools 35 

Cost of schooling in rural district schools 35 

In rural district schools in Delaware 37 

In Hardin County (Iowa) rural schools with low attendance 38 

In Olmsted County (Minn.) rural schools 39 

Under specified conditions 39 

Comparison of cost of maintenance of consolidated schools and district 

schools in the same county and under similar conditions 45 

School attendance at consolidated and rural district schools 50 

School patronage increased by public conveyance of pupils 51 

Distribution of school attendance by grades 53 

Educational efficiency of consolidated and district schools 56 

Economic utilization of the time available for school work 56 

Effective division of the school time 57 

Division of school time in consolidated schools rational and advantageous 

to pupils 58 

Division of the school time at the disposal of the teachers 59 

Supervision of schools and qualifications of teachers 61 

Organization of a county system of consolidated schools and practicability of 

such a system 63 

The consolidated school as the logical center of country life activities 63 

The consolidated school not influenced by change of population 63 

Consolidation in States where the one-room school district is the unit 65 

Projected consolidation in Ada County, Idaho 68 

Projected consolidation in Canyon County, Idaho 69 

Projected consolidation in Olmsted County, Minn 71 

Consolidatior. in States where the county or township is the unit 74 

Consolidation in Duval County, Fla 75 

Consolidation in Delaware County, Ind 77 

Consolidation in Union Township, Montgomery County, Ind 79 

No. 232 

(3) 



Organization of a county system of consolidated schools and practicability of 

such a system — Continued. Page. 

Factors in the redisricting of counties into consolidated school districts. . 80 

Population 80 

Land values, tax unit areas 81 

Survey of land values of States for purposes of determining areas 

of possible consolidation 82 

Faulty district formation 82 

Consolidated schools in Mecca Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. 83 

Consolidated school at Lewiston, Winona County, Minn 83 

John Swaney Consolidated School, McNabb, Putnam County, 111. 86 

Consolidated school at Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio 87 

Topography 88 

Projected consolidation in Douglas County, Minn 89 

Tentative plan for consolidation of District No. XIV, Douglas 

County, Minn 91 

Roads 91 

Projected consolidation in Fairfax County, Va 94 

Conclusion 97 

Acknowledgments 99 

No. 232 



TABLES. 



Page. 
Table 1. Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools 

in Massachusetts 9 

2. Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools 

in Vermont 10 

3. Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools 

in Virginia - 10 

4. Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools 

in Indiana 10 

5. Average annual high-school attendance during a three-year 

period in three consolidated school townships and three dis- 
trict school townships in Ohio 29 

6. Average annual cost of schooling per pupil in attendance in 

1906 in the rural district schools of Delaware 37 

7. Average cost of schooling per pupil in Hardin County (Iowa) 

rural schools, with average attendance of less than 9 pupils 38 

8. Average cost of schooling per pupil in Olmsted County (Minn.) 

rural schools, with average attendance of less than 9 pupils 39 

9. Expenditure per school of the first grade and cost of schooling 

per pupil in Olmsted County, Minn 41 

10. Expenditure per school of the second grade and cost of school- 

ing per pupil in Olmsted County, Minn 41 

11. Expenditure per school and cost of schooling per pupil in 45 

consolidated schools , 43 

12. Average area, valuation, tax rate, and tax levy of three con- 

solidated-school townships and three district-school town- 
ships in Ohio 45 

13. School funds of three consolidated and three district school 

townships in Ohio . 46 

14. Average annual school expenditure and expenditure per pupil 

of three district-school townships in Ohio 47 

15. Average annual school expenditure and expenditure per pupil 

in the 12 grades of three consolidated-school townships in 
Ohio 47 

16. School population, enrolment, and average daily attendance in 

three consolidated and three district school townships in 
Ohio 1 52 

17. Average number of schools, school population, enrolment, and 

daily attendance of three townships in Ohio, for three years 
before and three years after consolidation 53 

18. Average daily attendance, by grades, of three consolidated and 

three district school townships in Ohio, and number of possi- 
ble students of agriculture 54 

19. Average age of pupils, by grades, in three district and thr.ee 

consolidated school townships in Ohio 57 

20. Total recitation and study hours available to each pupil during 

the entire eight-year elementary course in a consolidated and 

in a district school , 58 

21. Average number of teachers, number and size of classes, and 

length of recitations in the elementary grades of three con- 
solidated and three district school townships in Ohio 60 

22. Size and number of classes daily in three district-school town- 

ships in Ohio 60 

23. Enrolment for sixteen years in seven rural district schools in 

Minnesota 74 

No. 232 

(5) 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page. 

Fig. 1. Map showing extent of school consolidation in Massachusetts, 1906. . 9 

2. Map showing extent of school consolidation in Indiana, 1908 11 

3. Map showing extent of school consolidation in Florida, 1908 14 

4. One-room district school in Champion township, Ohio 15 

5. Map showing six northeastern Ohio counties 18 

6. Consolidated school building at Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio.. 19 

7. Consolidated school building at Johnston Center, Ohio 20 

8. Consolidated school building at Greene Center, Ohio 21 

9. Consolidated graded school at Southington, Trumbull County, Ohio. 22 

10. High-school pupils entering school wagons, Southington, Ohio 22 

11. School wagons from Southington returning pupils to their homes 23 

12. A one-pupil class 24 

13. Consolidated school building in Twin Falls, Idaho, 1908 25 

14. School wagon arriving in town at 8.30 a. m. at Twin Falls 26 

15. Wagon shed and wagons belonging to Twin Falls consolidated school. 27 

16. Map of Ada County, Idaho, showing boundaries of school districts 

and the location of district and high schools, 1S08 66 

17. Map of Ada County, illustrating a tentative plan of consolidation 67 

18. Map of Canyon County, Idaho, showing boundaries of school dis- 

tricts and location of district and high schools 69 

19. Map of Canyon County, Idaho, illustrating a tentative plan of con- 

solidation 70 

20. Map of Olmsted County, Minn., illustrating a tentative plan of con- 

solidation 72 

21. Map showing consolidated districts and location of consolidated 

schoolhouses in Duval County, Fla. , 1908 76 

22. Map showing extent of school consolidation in Delaware County, 

Ind., 1908 78 

23. Map of Union Township, Montgomery County, Ind., 1908 79 

24. Map of Mecca Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, 1907 84 

25. Map of consolidated school district at Le wiston, Minn 85 

26. Map of Magnolia Township, Putnam County, 111., showing the loca- 

tion of the John Swaney consolidated school district, 1908 86 

27. John Swaney consolidated school, McNabb, Putnam County, 111 87 

28. Map of Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, Ohio 88 

29. Map of Douglas County, Minn., illustrating a tentative plan of rural 

school consolidation and demonstrating that in lake sections of the 

country school wagon routes can be planned successfully 90 

30. Tentative plan of consolidation district No. XIV, Douglas County, 

Minn., in detail , 92 

31. Map of Fairfax County, Va., illustrating a tentative plan of rural- 

school consolidation in a county with irregular roads 94 

No. 232 

(6) 



CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANIZA- 
TION OF A COUNTY SYST 



INTRODUCTION. 

ADVANTAGES, EXTENT, AND PROGRESS OF RURAL-SCHOOL CON- 
SOLIDATION. 

From a realization that the old district-school system no longer 
conformed to modern educational and economic conditions, the plan 
was evolved some years ago of transporting at public expense pupils 
of neighboring school districts to large central schools. The plan 
has proved exceedingly popular, and a large proportion of the one- 
and-two-room district schools in the entire country seems destined 
to be supplanted by an educational system under which groups of 
these primitive institutions of learning will be merged into com- 
modious consolidated schools, equipped with modern conveniences, 
and provided with school wagons for the regular, safe, and prompt 
transportation of children from and to their homes. The advan- 
tages of the new system are obvious : The fusion of a number of small 
districts into a larger administrative unit furnishes a stable and 
extensive basis for financing the school and thereby makes for higher 
efficiency. The school, no longer seriously affected by fluctuations 
in school population, becomes an institution with fixed location and 
belongings. An incentive is given to make permanent improvements, 
to beautify the school grounds, secure modern sanitation, and pro- 
vide ample schoolroom equipment. The large number of children 
assembled at a centrally located school makes possible graded classes 
and a better division of the school day. Studies can be introduced 
which require special equipment and specially trained teachers, such 
as agriculture, home economics, manual training, music — advan- 
tages almost unattainable in small district schools. These centrally 
located country-life schools, too, form convenient social centers for 
communities; local interests and activities affiliate with the schools, 
so that public use is frequently made of their commodious class rooms 
or auditoriums. Encouragement is given to the growth of literary 
and debating societies, social and agricultural clubs, grange meetings, 
reading circles, athletic and other competitions among pupils, and 
entertainments of various kinds. 

No. 232 

(7) 



It has occasionally been asserted that rural-school consolidation, 
because it has not made more extensive progress since its origin in 
1869, does not promise soon to become an influential factor in our 
educational system. Recent events have made this opinion no longer 
tenable. During the past five years more consolidated school build- 
ings have been constructed in the United States than during the 
twenty-five years preceding. Perhaps it is fortunate that during 
the early period of its growth consolidation did not spread with 
greater rapidity. It was assimilated into the rural-school system 
as a result of -observation and careful experiment, and fortunately 
lacked every element of a fad. It gains a foothold chiefly where 
civic ambition and high educational ideals establish high standards 
and determine to attain them. There is an impressive substan- 
tialness about these schools and their belongings which indicates 
that the people who built have unbounded faith in them. Con- 
solidation of rural schools has won a permanent place among the 
distinctly American institutions. 

Consolidation, with its attendant function of public conveyance 
of pupils, is now a part of the rural-school system of thirty-two 
States. Eighteen hundred completely, and not less than two thou- 
sand partially, consolidated schools attest the remarkable adaptabil- 
ity of the system to the peculiar needs of agricultural communities. 

Although in most States consolidation is still limited to scattered 
localities, it has in several assumed noteworthy proportions, indica- 
tive of a well-defined educational movement. Graphic illustrations 
are introduced herewith to show its extent in a few educationally 
progressive States differing widely in geographical position, agricul- 
ture, and population. Expenditure for transportation in a State or 
county reflects in a general way the extent of this educational move- 
ment, and has been made the basis of figures 1, 2, and 3. The black 
circles represent expenditure for conveyance, the largest indicating 
the largest expenditure, the smallest the least. The circles in each 
map are drawn to a different scale, and hence those on one are not 
comparable with those on the others. 

The territory over which consolidation will eventually extend in 
the United States is probably considerably greater than popularly 
supposed. 

Taking the increase of expenditure for conveyance as an index of 
the growth of consolidation, several States show phenomenal increases 
and indicate that farmers are putting forth unprecedented efforts 
along educational lines. Massachusetts, the oldest State in consolida- 
tion experience, furnishes the longest record. The annual expenditure 
for conveyance since 1889 is shown in Table 1. 

No. 232 



Table 1.- 



-Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools in 
Massachusetts. - 



Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


1889 


$22, 118. 38 
24, 145. 12 
30, 648. 68 
33, 726. 07 
50, 590. 41 
63, 617. 68 
76, 608. 29 
91,136.11 
105, 317. 13 
123, 032. 41 


1899 


$127, 409. 22 
141, 753. 84 


1890 


1900 


1891 


1901 


151, 773. 47 


1892 


1902 - 


165,596 91 


1893 


1903 


178 297 64 


1894 


1904 


194, 967. 35 


1895 


1905 


213,220.93 
236,415.40 


1896 


1906 


1897 


1907 


252,451.11 
292, 213. 33 


1898 , 


1908 









a Annual Reports of the Board of Education, Massachusetts. 

During the first twelve years the growth of consolidation in Massa- 
chusetts was very rapid and doubled practically every four years. 
Later development, although slow, was continuous. 



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Fig. 1. — Map showing graphically the extent of rural-school consolidation and expenditure 
for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools in Massachusetts counties, 1908. 

Area of State, 8,040 square miles ; number of counties, 14 ; consolidation in all. 

In each county consolidation is indicated by a black circle, whose size is proportioned 
to the expenditure for transportation. 

Vermont, where it would be supposed topographical conditions 
give but slight encouragement to school- wagon transportation, has 
expended the sums shown in Table 2. The greatest increases in ex- 
penditure were made within the last two years. 

No. 232 



10 

Table 2. — Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools m 

Vermont. 



Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


1895 


812, 941. 34 
18, 428. 85 
18, 520. 65 
18, 306. 11 
20, 880. 77 
26, 492. 24 
32,034.39 


1902 


836 562 89 


1886 


1903 


37, 358. 05 


1897 ... 


1904 


43, 687. 37 
45, 361. 20 
47, 132. 58 


1898 


1905 


1899 


1906 


1900 


1907 


54, 012. 24 
73, 465. 24 


1901 


1908 







a Reports of the state superintendent of schools, 1895-1908. 

Statistics for four years of consolidation in Virginia are presented 
in Table 3. The increase of expenditures, twelvefold in four years, 
discloses a remarkable spread of consolidation sentiment among the 
farmers of that State. 



Table 3.- 



-Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools in 
Virginia. 



Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


1905 


$2, 101. 22 
6, 953. 67 


1907 


816, 000. 00 
25, 858. 00 


1906 


1908 











a Virginia School Report. 

The rapidity and extent of consolidation in Indiana give that State 
at present the leading position in rural school development. As prac- 
tically all of the quarter million dollars and more expended for trans- 
portation of school children in 1907-8 was raised by local taxation, it 
is evident that the farmers of that State regard consolidation as the 
school system par excellence for rural communities. The organization 
and methods of a transportation system upon which the large sums 
exhibited in Table 4 are expended have been developed to a point of 
high efficiency. 



Table 4. 



-Expenditure for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools in 
Indiana. 11 



Year. 


Amount 
expended. 


1904 


886, 600 


1906 


175, 886 


1908 


290, 073 







° Statistics furnished by superintendent of public instruction of Indiana. 

Since 1904 the expenditures for conveyance in Indiana have more 
than trebled. 

No. 232 



11 

The superintendent of public instruction of North Dakota reports 
that " the number of schools [in that State] which have been consoli- 
dated completely or in part have doubled within the last two years." 



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77/£ CIRCLES IN ORDER OF SIZE SYMBOLIZE AN EX- 
PENDITURE OF $1,000.9 AND $5.000,&k FOR 
CONVEYANCE OF PUPILS. '^ 

Fig. 2. — Map showing graphically the extent of rural-school consolidation and expenditure 
for conveyance of pupils to consolidated schools in Indiana counties, 1908. 

Area of State, 35,910 square miles ; number of counties, 92 ; consolidation in 82 ; num- 
ber of typical consolidated schools, 309 ; number of consolidated graded schools, 135 ; 
number of union schools, 784 ; total pupils transported daily, 19,109 ; total expenditure for 
transportation of pupils, $290,073 ; number of one-room school districts not consolidated 
whence pupils are transported to town or city schools, 598 ; total number of district 
schools abandoned, 1,611. 

In each county consolidation is indicated by a black circle, whose size is proportioned 
to the amount expended for transportation of pupils. 

Successful operation in 32 States furnishes ample evidence that 
geographically — which, in connection with this subject, relates chiefly 
to climate — there are no serious obstacles in the way of a much 
greater extension of the system. Consolidation is as successful in 
Idaho and North Dakota as in Florida, and serves the needs of the 
rural population of Louisiana as efficiently as that of Indiana and 

No. 232 



12 

of Maine. The success of consolidation in sparsely settled sections 
of North Dakota and Florida tends to dispel the popular misconcep- 
tion that it is practicable only in densely inhabited territory. 

It is significant that, in the course of this investigation, not one 
case of the abandonment of a completely consolidated school was 
found. Two cases were observed where partially consolidated schools 
were abandoned after trial and a return made to the old system. 
Investigation disclosed that in both cases dissatisfaction was due to 
incompetent management of the transportation service. It may be 
laid down as a law that the success of a consolidated school depends 
largely upon the thoroughness and care with which the conveyance 
department is managed. Free conveyance remedies very largely the 
dropping out of pupils before completing the eight primary grades, 
so common and so deplorable a condition in the district schools. The 
fact that under consolidation twice as many children in a community 
complete the eight grades as under the district- school plan is of 
immense educational and economic importance to State and nation. 
There results a direct contribution to national thrift through added 
industrial efficiency, greater intelligence, wider information, and 
higher citizenship. 

The consolidated school, further, by retaining attendance in the 
grammar grades, facilitates and encourages the entrance into high 
school of those who can not hope to go to college. Through consoli- 
dation of rural schools, secondary education may be brought to an 
additional million of rural children. Of the approximately 6,000,000 
country boys and girls in the United States, two-thirds should eventu- 
ally receive their schooling and a part of their vocational education 
in consolidated schools, leaving 2,000,000 who would, as heretofore, 
be educated in district schools in sections where physical conditions 
make consolidation impracticable. It is apparent that in their respec- 
tive spheres both forms of school will always occupy an important 
place in our educational system. Communities not favorably situated 
as regards practicability of consolidation will see the necessity of 
building up their district school system on the most modern plans. 
Singularly, the evolution of the consolidated school and the complete 
change of inherited and time-honored academic ideas concerning 
methods and purposes of education have fallen simultaneously within 
recent decades. That vocational studies possess cultural as well as 
informatory value is at last recognized, and a beginning has been 
made in placing vocational studies in high schools and the upper 
grades of elementary schools. The idea of an education specifically 
designed for the country boy and girl who is to remain on the farm 
has begun to take form ; a new American institution is in process of 
creation which will provide for them primary and secondary educa- 
tion in a consolidated school, owned and conducted by the community 

No. 232 



13 

in which the farm home is situated, so that the pupil may remain 
under parental care and guidance until at least a part of the high- 
school course is completed. 

The high-school graduate, equipped with vocational knowledge, 
will be well fitted either to return to the farm or to continue more 
thorough preparation for his chosen vocation in an agricultural high 
school or short course in the state college. Those who wish to take 
professional or technical courses may, on leaving the high-school 
grades of the consolidated school, enter either agricultural, engineer- 
ing, scientific, classical, or other courses in colleges or universities; 
for such students the vocational studies pursued in the consolidated 
school are a decided advantage, giving them a broadened outlook, a 
skillful hand, and an observant eye. It will be seen that a system of 
consolidated rural schools, agricultural high schools, and agricultural 
colleges articulates throughout, each school fitting into the next above 
it. At the same time, each division is complete in itself, preparing the 
boy and girl for a place in life. With the advent of the consolidated 
school, the high school, very properly named " the people's college," is 
placed within easy reach of the country child. In many States the 
sum expended privately for tuition and board of rural children at- 
tending high schools in towns or cities would nearly defray the cost 
of wagon transportation to the consolidated schools if in existence. 

If, as economists assert, we are approaching the point where the 
industrial position of a nation will be determined by the length of 
the instructional period of its children, the taking of good high 
schools to the country and the eventual addition of from two to four 
years to the school life of each of several million country boys and 
girls has a profound meaning. 

Considerable prominence will be given in this bulletin to the idea 
of large administrative school units. The educational subdivision 
of a State need not necessarily be made to correspond with the civic 
or political divisions. The conditions and interests involved in each 
differ so widely that the most systematic and thorough course to pur- 
sue in subdividing a county, or even a State, for educational purposes 
is to ignore the smaller civic and political subdivisions. Experience 
suggests that, if possible, the unit should not be smaller than the 
county. Consolidation by townships, while proved convenient in the 
New England States and in Ohio, Indiana, and Dakota, is feasible 
only under certain conditions and can not be carried out in all 
States with equal chances of success; even in the States mentioned 
difficult situations have occasionally arisen which could have been 
avoided by county districting. The county, once adopted as a unit, 
may be all or nearly all subdivided into consolidated school districts, 
leaving small district schools only at points where consolidation 
appears impracticable. 

No. 232 



14 



The county unit works to advantage also in that it makes possible 
the selection of more efficient school boards; a larger population 
affords a wider field for the selection of men and women qualified 




LEGEND: 
THE CIRCLES IN ORDER OF SIZE SYMBOLIZE AN EX- 
PENDITURE OF $ 5OO.^AND$l,OOO.0bk FOR 

CONVEYANCE OF PUPILS. 



Fig. 3. — Map showing graphically the extent of rural-school consolidation and expenditure 
for conveyance of pupils to consolidated rural schools in Florida counties in 1908.. 

Area of State, 54,240 square miles ; number of counties, 46 ; school consolidation in 
30 counties ; total expenditure for transportation, $25,243.72. 

In each county consolidation is indicated by a black circle whose size is proportioned to 
the expenditure for transportation. 

The present agricultural area of the State is about 6,818 square miles, or one-eighth 
of the entire area. Viewed in this light, the distribution of consolidated schools over that 
area, as well as the amount expended for conveyance, places this State in an advanced 
position in rural school progress. 

for this important office. Much as farmers may be wedded to the 
plan for local boards, experience in many States proves that the 
county unit is better. 

No. 232 



15 

The underlying ideas of the county-unit plan are better adminis- 
trative control of school affairs, equitable distribution of school 
funds, and advantageous subdivision of the county into school 
districts. 

Small districts, averaging about four square miles, each separate 
and independent, often lack the cooperative sentiment necessary for 
extensive consolidation. Their voluntary association into one school 
unit is either accomplished with difficulty or succeeds only in 
part. In the latter case, in the formation of consolidated districts 




Fig. 4. — One-room district school in Champlain Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. 
This is the type of one-room schoolhouse in northeastern Ohio as found in the three 
district-school townships, Williamsfleld, Champion, and Southington. As a rule they are 
in good repair, nearly all slate roofed and well painted. Statistics collected in 24 of these 
schools furnish the data for comparisons with consolidated schools on succeeding pages. 
Nearly all these schools have small libraries. 

mistakes are liable to be made both as to size of district and location 
of schoolhouse, and by leaving isolated districts so located that their 
ultimate consolidation is impracticable. The cost, permanence, and 
local influence of the consolidated school demand a careful planning 
of the new district, as a mistake in the location of the building is less 
easily corrected than in the case of a one-room school. One State, 
Minnesota, recognizing the importance of this, has placed upon its 
statute books an optional county consolidation law, which embodies 
this feature of districting and formulates a comprehensive county 
plan before consolidating. 

No, 232 



16 

As a part of the study of consolidated schools, the practicability 
of this feature of the Minnesota law was theoretically tested in 
several States under a variety of geographical and topographical 
conditions by tentatively districting entire counties into districts 
suitable for consolidation. The experiment has in each case resulted 
satisfactorily and suggests the means of introducing into a county a 
compact, economical rural school system, in which all children have 
equal opportunities and in which there is no duplication of expendi- 
tures nor of school work. 

OBJECT, SCOPE, AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION". 

The research movement which began during the latter half of the 
nineteenth century has accumulated vast stores of agricultural knowl- 
edge which is being organized into useful sciences that daily find 
application in the field, orchard, barn, and home. Research into 
every possible phase of agriculture is being made with constantly in- 
creasing interest. And it is becoming an economic necessity that this 
large body of practical knowledge be utilized and that avenues be 
provided through which it may reach all people in the open country. 

Changed economic conditions which have given a new direction to 
urban life and institutions, are also gradually extending their in- 
fluence to the rural districts. Already a different trend foreshadows 
a basic reorganization of our country life affairs and institutions. 

Farming is rapidly becoming more specialized, more difficult, and 
calls for more refined methods than formerly. Each successive year 
places a higher premium on intelligence, on the better understanding 
of the details of farm engineering and farm management, of crop 
production, of the rearing of livestock, and of the use and adjustment 
of expensive and often complex machinery. 

The existing agencies for the distribution of the accumulations of 
valuable new knowledge are admittedly unequal to the task of reach- 
ing all people in the country. Universities and colleges which teach 
agriculture and home economics reach less than one per cent of the 
country people. Many of those who are educated in agriculture and 
home economics enter into research work or teaching along these lines. 

By means of farmers' institutes, traveling lecturers, bulletins, 
demonstration farms, and other forms of extension work, large num- 
bers of adult country folks are given a taste of the accumulated 
knowledge of agriculture and receive something of its inspiration. 
But the vital point in the vocational education of the productive 
workers and home makers of the next generation assembled in the 
rural schools has not heretofore been touched. 

The forms of national and racial vitality centered in the farm 
homes are just beginning to be appreciated. The vitalizing forces 

No. 232 



17 

which may be liberated by efficiently teaching vocational subjects in 
the rural schools are just being discovered. Leaders in statecraft 
and education are building up a philosophy of rural education and 
rural organization in which the rural schools are essential parts. 

It is worthy of note that agricultural studies have gained such a 
status as educational subjects that they are being introduced as cul- 
ture studies in some city schools. The States of Alabama, Arkansas, 
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, 
South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and 
Wisconsin have provided by law that agriculture shall be one of the 
studies in the rural schools. Most other States are putting this sub- 
ject forward in the common schools, and many normal schools as well 
as state colleges of agriculture are beginning to prepare teachers to 
give instruction in agriculture. 

Agriculture in rural schools, though not required by law, is en- 
couraged in Arizona, Maryland, Missouri, Illinois, and Virginia. 
The time of its general adoption as part of the course of study of 
rural schools is probably not far distant. And it is certain that money 
will be expended by school boards for equipment and illustrative 
material to be used in teaching vocational studies. The question of 
how and under what conditions agriculture can be most efficiently 
taught is beginning to receive serious attention, and the object of 
the investigation reported in this bulletin was to ascertain which 
kind of rural school will most easily allow the addition of agriculture 
to its course of study; through which school this knowledge can be 
communicated to the largest numbers; and whether the present sys- 
tem of rural district schools is adequate to a task of such immense 
importance. 

The consolidation of rural schools is not only of educational inter- 
est to farming communities, but it also establishes a new unit of area 
for country social and business organization. The investigations 
herein recorded show that the importance of this system as a country- 
life institution can scarcely be overestimated, and from this broad 
point of view it has commanded the interest of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture. 

The general method of investigation was personal study on the 
ground. However, no source of information regarding school consoli- 
dation was neglected, and the current literature of the agricultural 
and educational press, consisting of contributions by teachers, educa- 
tors, and tax-paying school patrons, was freely consulted. The annual 
reports of the state superintendents of schools of several States, 
notably Indiana and Massachusetts, have, for a number of years past, 
contributed information of great interest and value. Numerous bulle- 
tins and special reports have also been published on the subject by a 
number of state and county superintendents of schools and by the 
54634°— Bull. 232—10 2 



18 



extension departments of several state colleges. All this information, 
mainly local in character, demanded study and coordination, and was 
useful in outlining the course to be pursued in this investigation. 




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I LEGEND 

UNION SCHOOL 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

TOWNSHIP UNE 

COUNTY LINE. —. 

STATE LINE _ 

TOWN — 



Fig. 5. — Diagrammatic map of six northeastern Ohio counties, showing status of con- 
solidation in 1908. 
The counties are divided into townships, which as a rule are about 5 miles square, or 25 
square miles in area, and fairly regular. The schools shown are all of the typical consolida- 
dated kind, except the union schools, which are in various stages of partial consolidation. 
The blank townships have district schools. The townships of Williamsfield and South- 
ington were at the time of investigation district school townships, but have consolidated 
their schools since then as indicated. 

In the spring of 1906 the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, through the medium of the Bureau of Statistics, began a study 
of rural consolidated schools. This work was planned to proceed 
at first along statistical, and later along constructive, lines. 

No. 232 



19 

In pursuance of this plan data were collected in a group of strictly 
rural townships maintaining district schools and in a group of town- 
ships in the same county maintaining consolidated schools. In this 
manner all phases of both kinds of schools were comparable under 
similar conditions. Statistical methods of investigation were resorted 
to whenever the phase of the subject under consideration would 
permit, and figures were always preferred to individual views or 
opinions. 




Fig. 6. — Consolidated school building at Kinsman, Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, 
Ohio. Cost, complete, $9,144. 
A modern, steam-heated brick building of moderate cost, with stone foundation and slate 
roof, containing four large and one small class rooms and a basement. The small class 
room is used as a laboratory and principal's office ; in the cement-floored basement are the 
play rooms, a well-selected library, a furnace room and water-closets. The school is 
equipped with apparatus for teaching physics and geography. Well water is pumped into 
the building by a gasoline engine. The valuation of the township for taxation is $486,095 ; 
the total school enrollment 99, of which 69 are in the elementary course and 30 in the 
high school. 

After the conclusion of this detailed investigation other district 
and consolidated schools, numbering several hundred, were visited in 
all parts of the United States where consolidation is in successful 
operation and where it is supplanting the small district school. 
Cases of extensive consolidated school systems, embracing almost 
entire counties, were noted in several States, and instances of these 
are cited in the bulletin. The constructive part of the bulletin deals 
with some of the principles and methods of school consolidation, and 
these are illustrated by showing how certain counties might be dis- 
tricted into consolidated school districts and how their present dis- 

No. 232 



20 

trict schools might be consolidated and transformed into efficient 
country-life schools. 

The locality chosen for the detailed local study was in northeastern 
Ohio, popularly known as the " Western Reserve." Of the three 
townships maintaining district schools, hereinafter designated as 
district school townships, two (Champion and Southington) are in 
Trumbull County and one (Williamsfield) in Ashtabula County. 




Fig. 7. — Consolidated school building at Johnston Center, Johnston Township, Trumbull 
County, Ohio. Cost, including furniture, equipment, etc., $5,367. 
A moderate-cost, steam-heated frame building (stone foundation and slate roof) contain- 
ing four large and three small class rooms, with a basement under the entire building. 
The upper story consists of two rooms separated by a sliding partition and capable of being 
converted into a single room for lectures or entertainments. The school is provided with 
a library, apparatus for instruction in physics, and an organ. In the basement one room 
is reserved for use of the school board and for the preservation of school records. The 
grounds contain 2J acres. Valuation of township, $548,577 ; total enrollment, 181 ; in 
elementary courses, 151 ; high school, 30. 

The three townships (Kinsman, Johnston, and Greene) maintain- 
ing consolidated schools, hereinafter called consolidated school town- 
ships, are in Trumbull County (see fig. 5). The facts collected in 
this investigation have furnished material for two bulletins ; the pres- 
ent one outlines the general scheme, and a second will deal chiefly 
with the cost, organization, and effectiveness of public conveyance by 
school wagons and other means. 

No. 232 



21 

This portion of northeastern Ohio is gently undulating and, where 
underdrained, fertile and productive. The price of farm land ranges 
between $35 and $75 an acre. Dairying is the leading form of agri- 
cultural industry, chiefly the production of cheese and commercial 
milk. Attention is also paid to potato, onion, and egg production. 
The dairy stock is well graded up and there are a number of pure- 
bred dairy herds, Holstein-Friesian blood greatly predominating. 




Fig. 8.- — Consolidated school building at Greene Center, Greene Township, Trumbull 
County, Ohio. Cost of building,' complete, $9,859. 

A substantial, steam-heated, brick building with stone foundation and slate roof. It con- 
tains eight rooms, viz : Four class rooms, a principal's office, a kindergarten or play room 
for small children, and two large rooms, one used for high-school instruction and as a 
chemical and physical laboratory, the other designed for use as a public reading room. A 
basement extends under the entire building. The grounds occupy 4 acres. 

This large building, situated 5 miles from one railway and 6 from another, is the most 
conspicuous landmark within an area of 25 square miles. It is gradually becoming the 
center of the intellectual activities of the community as is indicated by an annual lecture 
course, the well-attended graduation exercises, and various other entertainments held 
there. Valuation of township is $369,994 ; total enrollment, 151 ; 129 in elementary 
course ; and 22 in the high school. 

The school records of each of the six townships were examined and 
data covering a period of three years compiled therefrom. Hence 
all data given concerning the schools in those townships (Tables 5, 
and 13 to 22) are three-year averages. This group of townships was 
selected for purposes of study, because as farming communities they 
stand somewhat above the average, and their consolidated and district 

No. 232 



22 




Fig. 9. — Consolidated graded school at Southington, Trumbull County, Ohio. Cost, $7,000. 

A neat brick structure with slate roof. Contains four rooms, basement under entire 
building, and is furnace heated. 

Southington Center is a village of about 80 population, and is the only village in the 
township. It is one of the three townships whose district schools were selected for ana- 
lytical and statistical study ; a year after the investigation the schools were consolidated. 
The high-school grades are accommodated in a separate specially erected building. 




Fig. 10. — High-school pupils entering school wagons, Southington, Trumbull County, Ohio. 
No. 232 



23 

schools are good examples of their respective types, fully warranting 
the use of the data obtained there in comparison with rural schools 
elsewhere in the United States. 

The three consolidated-school townships and the three district- 
school townships were selected for comparison because they represent 
similar conditions of agriculture, population, soil, topography, roads, 
general wealth, and culture. 




Fig. 11. — School wagons from Southington, Ohio, consolidated school, returning pupils to 

their homes. 

The township owns 10 school wagons, all of uniform make and size. Expenditure for 
conveyance in 190S, $2,524.80, or at an annual cost of $10.30 per pupil using public con- 
veyance, or 6.4 cents per pupil daity. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL. 

In this bulletin the term " consolidation " has been given preference 
over " centralization." The former is probably the word more exten- 
sively used and has a wider meaning; the latter is a localism used 
mainly in Ohio. Its use is correct where all the pupils in one town- 
ship are conveyed to one centrally located school, or where all former 
district schools " centralize " in one school, but these conditions do 
not always obtain. In sections where the civic or school units are 
irregular in form or are very large in size, and where a township or 
district perhaps requires several consolidated schools to serve its 
needs, centralization can not take place in the exact sense of that word, 
and in such cases the term consolidation applies rather than centrali- 
zation. " Complete consolidation " is used to indicate a merger of 

No. 232 



24 

all the rural schools of a township, or larger civic or school unit, into 
one ; " partial consolidation," on the other hand, signifies that only 
part of the schools of a township or arbitrary area have been merged, 
still leaving part of the original district or common schools detached 
or unconsolidated. The ideal consolidated school district is 4 to 7 
miles across each way, its size being determined by the practical limits 
of the team haul. In time, as the consolidated schools become solidly 
cemented into rural life affairs, some new name will no doubt be 




Fig. VJ.. — A one-pupil class. 

In eight district schools in Champion Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, were held 46 
daily classes of one pupil each. Small classes lack in enthusiasm, and the pupil loses the 
immense advantage of one in a large class who listens to the recitations of others, the 
repetition of questions and answers being a drill which is most helpful. 

devised truly expressive of their function in, or relation to, the rural 
community life. The names " farm-school " and " country-life school " 
have been suggested for the consolidated school located on a small 
school farm among farms in the open country. 

Many of the consolidated schools, especially those located within 
villages, are cramped for room. Five acres should be the least, Avhile 
10 or 12 acres is about the right size for school grounds. If 
there is no immediate prospect for using this land as a school farm 
for purposes of instruction, part of it may be sown to grass and set 

No. 232 



25 

apart for athletics and other uses; another part may be planted in 
shade trees and part in forest trees and shelter belts. Therefore, in 
the selection of a site for the school building, regard should always 
be had to securing ample ground for a school farm and the uses to 
which that farm is eventually to be put. 

The term " consolidated district " is used in this bulletin to desig- 
nate a permanent union of one-room, or common-school, districts. 



. 




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g^ilirin-l.'-.. 1 ' 1 


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Fig. 13. — Consolidated school building in Twin Falls, Twin Falls County, Idaho, 1908. 

Area of district, 36 square miles ; population in 1908, 4,000. A modern, steam-heated, 
brick building with slate roof. Basement is high and spacious and contains several class 
rooms ; running water throughout building. 

The total enrolment is 726 and the high school enrolment is 100, or over 13 per cent 
of the total. Eight school wagons convey about 200 of the children to school, all living 
outside city limits being entitled to public transportation. Not all, however, make use of 
the privilege. The school has 2 acres of playground and a school farm of 4 acres. The 
high school offers a strong commercial course, and agriculture, having a hearing on local 
farming conditions, is taught. Four years ago the ground where this building now stands 
was a solid growth of sagebrush and the country for miles around was arid and unin- 
habited. Attention is called to the carefully planted and staked young trees and the 
closely clipped lawn on three sides of the building. 

This union may comprise an entire township or part of a large town- 
ship, or a magisterial district, an election district, a tax district or a 
" town," as used in the New England States. A large variety of 
names is given in different parts of the country to the same civil unit 
or subdivision of the county. Consolidation may also take place in 
special or independent school districts especially organized for the 
purpose. In every case the consolidated district represents (1) a tax 
district, the resources from which go to the support of one or more 

No. 232 



26 

consolidated schools, and (2) a unit of farm territory in which the 
pupils living beyond reasonable walking distance from schools are 
transported thither at public expense in wagons owned by the school 
or hired from private parties. The service of railroad and inter- 
urban or electric cars and even of launches is often used very ad- 
vantageously, and in some cases private conveyance provided by 
patrons themselves is utilized. The consolidated schoolhouses should 




Fig. 14. — School wagon arriving in town at 8.80 a. m. at Twin Falls, Idaho, 1908. 

The topography of the Twin Falls consolidated district is level ; roads run mostly on 
section lines, and owing to slight rainfall are good and solid the year around. At times 
dust is disagreeable. 

The landscape shows a considerable dearth of houses ; homes as yet are far apart. 
That some of the farm population live in tents is seen to the left. 

The simplicity of this picture is quite in contrast to the impressiveness of the story 
which it tells. In these newly settled western lands, to which civilization has suddenly 
been transplanted, progressive educational ideas seem to find sustenance and quickly bear 
results. These new communities with their commodious schoolhouses, neat, well-planted 
and carefully tended school grounds, and well-organized systems of school transportation, 
assembling pupils from even remote homes, some located in what is practically " desert,"' 
imply a firm faith in education. It is safe to say that educationally such districts as this 
are half a century in advance of some of the older sections of country. 

be located preferably at or near the geographical center of the dis- 
trict. Convenience in travel and justice to all the patrons make this 
almost imperative. Cases are not rare where, in order to build the 
school in the exact geographical center of the toAvnship or district, 
it has come to be located at some distance from the village or town 
which constitutes the business center. On the other hand, where ex- 
isting town or village schools were turned over to and accepted by the 

No. 232 



27 

school board to be converted into consolidated schools, the matter of 
geographical location was, as a matter of course, largely disregarded. 

As each community models its schools in conformity to its own 
needs and financial conditions, the organization and work of con- 
solidated schools naturally varies. Some communities convey only the 
pupils from the sixth grade up, continuing those in lower grades in 
the original district schools; others transport only the younger chil- 
dren, while the high-school pupils are required to furnish their own 
transportation. But most schools furnish conveyance to all children, 
irrespective of age or grade. 

When new buildings are erected they usually represent the best 
efforts of the community, and are objects of local pride. The size, 
equipment, and architecture are decided largely by the wealth of the 



Fig. 15. — Wagon shed and wagons belonging to Twin Falls consolidated school, Twin Falls, 

Idaho, 1908. 
Housing of the school wagons, which are public property, is provided for. This shed 
stands on one corner of the 4-acre school farm. 

community. In wealthy agricultural sections it is not uncommon to 
find school buildings costing $20,000 and more. A serviceable, sub- 
stantial, and modern four or five room building can be erected for 
from $8,000 to $12,000, and the majority of buildings are of this kind. 
There are a number of firms of architects who have made the peculiar 
requirements of these schools a special study, and who have wide 
experience in planning suitable buildings. The services of such spe- 
cialists should be engaged when the erection of a new building is 
contemplated. 

Three general forms of consolidated schools may be distinguished : 
Typical consolidated schools, consolidated graded schools, and union 
schools. The first two, in the majority of cases, represent complete 
consolidation of district schools, and the last, partial consolidation, 

No. 232 



28 

though there are some successful typical consolidated schools under 
partial consolidation. Complete and partial consolidation are merely 
relative terms. 

THE TYPICAL CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 

The distinctive feature of this form of consolidated school is, in 
addition to the usual elementary course, a two, three or four year 
high-school course. This type is gaining marked favor with farmers, 
especially in Ohio, Indiana, and Massachusetts. 

Reversing the custom of letting the country boy and girl reach the 
high school as best they can, in effect bringing the high school to the 
farm, and then adding to ease of access by hauling the children to 
it at public expense, is certainly revolutionary. The common and 
popular idea is that the country child must obtain an education under 
difficulties and even hardships, and the lives of successful and eminent 
men are frequently cited in support of that contention. The persist- 
ence of this idea, which has advocates in the city as well as in the 
country, has no doubt checked school growth in many rural districts. 

Simple justice, if there were no other recason, should compel the 
admission that to attend high school is as much the right of the 
country child as of the city child. The only place where this right is 
freely accorded is in the typical consolidated school district. 

It is common to judge the educational opportunities of all the chil- 
dren of a rural community by those which a few of the most for- 
tunate enjoy, either by accident of birth or by chance of living near 
a high school. That is a gross injustice. The educational solicitude 
which is extended -to each individual child is the true index of the 
value which a community places upon its children. 

High-school attendance for rural pupils not resident in city or 
town is provided for in different ways in different States. In some 
States liberal " state high-school aid laws " allow attendance in any 
high school free to any pupil in the State; in others, free attendance 
at county or township high schools is confined to pupils resident in 
that particular county or township. In other States no aid laws 
provide for defraying cost of high-school tuition from state or 
county funds, and country children attending high school are re- 
quired to pay their own tuition. Upon statistical analysis it is 
found that the privilege accorded to the country child of attending 
a city or town high school free of tuition has at best a very limited 
value and in the end places high-school attendance within the reach 
of only a select few, usually those living near towns. This is best 
shown in the extraordinary increase in high-school attendance, where 
consolidation places a high school within the reach of children of the 
community and provides free public transportation. 

No. 232 



29 

The data obtained in the educationally progressive northeastern 
Ohio counties of Trumbull and Ashtabula illustrate the increase of 
high-school attendance with especial force. There the state law 
provides certain conditions under which the home township of 
the rural or nonresident pupil shall pay the tuition at whichever 
public high school he or she may choose to attend. Hence, attendance 
at high school there is practically free to rural children, being condi- 
tioned only upon their means and ability to reach the town or city 
high school. 

While this encouragement to rural youth to attend near-by city 
or town high schools does benefit a goodly number, it is far less 
effective than the establishment of locally owned and conducted 
high schools within easy reach of the farm home, as shown by Table 5 : 

Table 5. — Average annual high-school attendance during a three-year (1903- 
1905) period in three consolidated-school townships and three district-school 
townships in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, Ohio. 



Item. 


Consoli- 
dated- 
school 
township. 


District- 
school 
township. 


Population of school age, 6 to 18 number.. 


204 


192 

4.2 


Average daily attendance in high school do 

School enrolment attending high school per cent.. 

School population attending high school do 


25.3 
18.6 
12.4 




2.5 

2.2 



The per cent of the school population attending high school in the 
unconsolidated townships was only 2.2, as compared with 12.4 per cent 
in the consolidated townships, illustrating how much more effective 
the consolidated school is in leading rural youths to high school. Of 
the total school enrolment in the consolidated-school townships, one 
pupil in every six attended high school, while in the district-school 
township the proportion of high school students was 1 in 36. 

The annual report of the commissioner of common schools for 
Ohio, 1904, gives the total number of district-school graduates for 
whom tuition is paid as 0.97 of 1 per cent of the rural school popula- 
tion. Hence the 2.2 per cent in the above table indicates an unusu- 
ally strong high-school attendance from the townships represented in 
the table. 

Since the consolidated school can also much more effectively sup- 
ply instruction in agriculture and home making, as will be shown 
further on, it is clear that funds raised by state, county, or local 
taxes for purposes of education are much more effective when ex- 
pended through the consolidated school than in the county high 
school in the distant town or city. 

No. 232 



30 

CONSOLIDATED GBADED SCHOOL. 

Schools of two, three, or four rooms, with a regular seven or eight 
year primary or elementary course and no high school, are herein 
called consolidated graded schools. 

This type of school is exceedingly serviceable in communities 
where limited funds or lack of pupils do not permit the establish- 
ment also of a high-school course ; they possess all the advantages of 
a graded school, with social, cooperative, and other advantages of 
consolidation. In the less thickly peopled sections of the country, 
schools of this type are rapidly overcoming many of the adverse con- 
ditions of district schools. They are found in greatest numbers in 
the Western and Southern States. There is an interesting group of 
these schools in the thinly settled portions of North Dakota, a State 
which is taking the lead of States in the Northwest in systematically 
adopting rural school consolidation. Florida and Georgia are also 
reconstructing their rural schools on the consolidation plan. Most 
of them are of the consolidated graded type, and not a few are avail- 
ing themselves of the opportunity which state aid affords of placing 
high-school courses in their curriculums. 

Southern farmers as a whole favor the system; the chief obstacle 
to its more rapid progress is lack of means for financing it on an 
extensive scale. 

UNION SCHOOL. 

The organization of the union school is simple. It consists of 
the combination of two, three, or even four common-school districts, 
placing the schoolhouse at some strategic point, with or without 
public conveyance. In a community where the idea of conveying 
children to school in wagons is new, the first trials are necessarily 
more or less experimental. Much of the success of the undertaking 
depends upon the business qualities of the official in charge, whose 
most important qualifications must be managerial ability, tact, and 
good judgment, and a clear realization of the importance of obtain- 
ing capable drivers for the school wagons. Where any of these 
qualifications are lacking, dissatisfaction and complaints are likely 
to result. 

Not infrequently, the union school develops signs of considerable 
strength and absorbs several district schools within driving distance, 
until it has evolved into a typical or graded consolidated school. 

The union of one-room schools by transportation of pupils offers a 
solution for many perplexing defects of organization in the district 
schools. For instance, cases are not infrequent where neighborhood 
quarrels, extending to the school, make teaching in the district so 
distasteful that it is difficult to get teachers; oftentimes, too, teach- 
ers can not find a suitable boarding place, or taking board with one 

No. 232 



31 

family may arouse the jealousy of another family. The ensuing 
disagreement may eventually disrupt the school and bring the teach- 
er's work to naught. There are districts where family feuds have 
been handed down as a heritage from one generation of school 
children to the next. For all such difficulties transportation to a 
centrally located school affords permanent settlement. 

Indiana is undoubtedly taking the lead in abolishing its small 
and unsatisfactory district schools by legislation, and thus indirectly 
forcing consolidation. In that State the law makes mandatory the 
discontinuance of all schools having an average daily attendance 
of twelve or less, and leaves optional with the township trustee 
the closing of those with an average daily attendance of fifteen or 
less. Under this law, 1,200 district schools were closed in 1907 and 
1908, some under the plan of uniting a few schools, others under 
the plan of at once effecting complete consolidation of the schools 
of the township. Other States have similar laws, but exemptions 
make the laws virtually inoperative ; as no legal provisions are made 
for funds for the transportation of the pupils of a discontinued school 
to some other, the small schools are generally continued under the ex- 
emption clauses. Where complete consolidation can be at once effected 
there is no loss from changes of temporary plans carried out under the 
partial consolidation by the union of a few schools. 

Frequently the union of schools can be effected without transporta- 
tion and without greatly increasing the distance which some pupils 
have to walk. In many localities where district division has been 
carried to extremes and where schoolhouses are less than a mile 
apart, this is being done very advantageously. Georgia, North Caro- 
lina, and South Carolina have in the last few years abolished scores 
of district schools by this method. 

As to the cost of operating union schools, no data have been col- 
lected. Where the wages of the teachers of discontinued schools -are 
sufficient to pay for the transportation of pupils to the union school, 
the proposition is simple. Or, where pupils living within \\ miles 
of the school are required to walk and those beyond that limit are 
hauled, a very large number may be assembled at comparatively 
small expense. 

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL IN COUNTRY-LIFE EDUCATION. 

It would be inopportune to discuss here the causes — industrial, 
economic, and social — which have contributed to the decline and even 
dissolution of many of the district schools. Historical fact and sta- 
tistical evidence lead to the conclusion that consolidation is a natural 
and logical step in the evolution of the American rural school system. 
It was not inaugurated in imitation of the city school system; but 

No, 232 



32 

the idea of consolidation and its necessary complement, transporta- 
tion of pupils, was conceived because the resourceful American 
farmer found that it would serve the peculiar needs of his own rural 
community. Consolidation was created by necessity to meet new con- 
ditions in the open country. 

The first consolidation of rural schools in the United States was 
effected by Supt. William L. Eaton at Concord, Mass. A state 
law enacted in 1869 authorized transportation of children to school 
at public expense. Under this act Superintendent Eaton immedi- 
ately began the task of consolidating the schools of Concord 
" town," and the magnificent school building now named " Emerson 
School " stands a monument to his ability and success. Superintend- 
ent Eaton's first school was really a union school, and the " difiiculties 
under which consolidation labored at that time can be realized from 
the fact that a period of ten years intervened between the closing of 
the first and the last district school in the township " (called " town " 
in New England). 

Kingsville, Gustavus, Kinsman, and several other Ohio town- 
ships are frequently cited as pioneers in consolidation because there 
for the first time consolidation by entire townships was successfully 
undertaken. All precedents in school-district organization were 
overthrown. Each township by vote transformed its several dis- 
trict schools into a single consolidated school. Special legislation 
was necessary to enable the townships to proceed. At Concord ab- 
sorption was the process resorted to, while the radical and aggressive 
Ohio farmers used what may be called constructive consolidation. 

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL A DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTION. 

In the consolidated rural school all children from the entire town- 
ship or district meet, mingle, compete, strive, make friendships, and 
learn how to work together. The school is free and accessible to all 
children within its jurisdiction. All the boys and girls, including 
those attending high school, return home daily, and, doing their 
allotted work or chores mornings and evenings, keep in touch with 
the home, the farm, and all its affairs, and remain within the shelter 
of home during the most impressionable period of their lives. There 
is no longer so much occasion for part of the children to attend 
distant boarding schools or to pay board in the near-by villages to 
attend high school. Class distinctions, which the old district school 
unconsciously fostered, are broken down and removed. The begin- 
ning of the consolidated-school movement fortunately occurs at a 
time when popular ideas of the purpose and aims of an education are 
undergoing an almost revolutionary change. The receptive attitude 
of school officials and educators and the aggressive spirit with which 
boards of consolidated schools support ideas tending to advance edu- 

No. 232 



33 

cational interests promise a career for consolidated schools the results 
of which will leave a lasting impress upon American agriculture and 
rural citizenship. Already the high-school courses are being en- 
riched by the introduction of new studies which have both an in- 
formatory and a vocational value, as distinguished from the classical 
studies which have chiefly culture value. Some use special text- 
books on farming, supplemented by bulletins from extension depart- 
ments of the state college and the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 

The consolidated schools are shaping their courses of study more 
and more to meet the needs of the boy and girl whose school days 
end at the expiration of the eight elementary years or in the early 
years of high school. Those who are desirous of taking up the study 
of agriculture as a profession can easily go from the consolidated 
school into the state agricultural college. Where the local school 
affords only a part of a high-school course, the student can complete 
high-school work in an agricultural high school or other school of 
secondary grade. The farm boy or girl who desires to enter some 
nonagricultural vocation can easily transfer to the general or special 
school of whatever kind he or she may desire. The broader train- 
ing provided by the consolidated school is much superior to that pro- 
vided in the average district school. There will thus be finally real- 
ized for the country boy and girl, no matter what his or her station, 
the opportunity for a vocational education in every school up to the 
highest in the land. 

The consolidated school is an institution which not only affords 
instruction in the various common branches of knowledge, but also 
reaches out and touches the communal life and the home life and 
enriches and enlarges the individual life of the youth as the district 
school never did and never can do, even under the most favorable 
conditions. 

COST OF MAINTENANCE OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS AND 
DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 

FINANCING AND COST OF RURAL SCHOOLS. 

NECESSITY OF SUPPLEMENTING STATE AND COUNTY SCHOOL EUNDS BY 

LOCAL FUNDS. 

Education is a component part of the standard of living and its 
tendency is to vary with soil productivity and with the material 
wealth and resources of the community. The standard of living in 
a community is reflected not only in the school buildings and other 
public belongings, but also in the efficiency of teachers, in the breadth 
of courses of study, in the care of buildings, in cleanliness and sani- 
tation, and in the thoroughness with which all undertakings are 
54634°— Bull. 232—10 3 



34 

carried out. Of course there are exceptions, and some rural com- 
munities of lesser wealth are known to maintain highly commendable 
district schools, while in some of the wealthiest agricultural sections 
the district schools are in every respect inferior to even average rural 
schools. 

Incorporated towns and cities have long recognized the necessity 
of supplementing state funds with local school tax levies. Country 
districts have been slower to adopt that policy, and in some States 
they still depend chiefly upon state and county taxes for their school 
funds. In certain States, in fact, the law until quite recently forbade 
the levying of local school taxes, and their rural schools were in a de- 
plorable condition. The idea that the rural school can make its 
greatest progress through local initiative is gaining ground, and the 
necessity and value of local taxation for the support of schools is con- 
stantly receiving wider recognition. 

At the same time, however, there is need of placing present methods 
of taxation and financing of public school systems upon a rational 
basis. This applies especially to methods of apportionment of state 
and county school funds. The prevailing method of basing the ap- 
portionment of state and county funds upon the census enumeration 
of children is probably the most open to criticism. Several States 
have improved upon this by apportioning funds upon the basis of 
enrolment or attendance, or still better, days of attendance. But 
these methods work hardships upon small districts, and a better plan, 
now in use in a few States, is to make the state apportionment accord- 
ing to the number of teachers employed in the county, and the county 
funds according to the number of teachers in the township or dis- 
trict. A combination of all these methods, each properly weighted 
in order of importance, would be the ideal system of apportionment 
of school funds, and one that would give full justice to all districts. 

It is safe to say that with an absolutely just and scientific system 
of taxation and school financing, every State in the Union will even- 
tually have ample funds for building, equipping, and conducting, in 
every community, public primary and secondary schools of the highest 
efficiency. 

The fate of various tax reforms depends upon state legislation ; and 
in many States constitutional amendments must first be voted before 
revision of tax and assessment laws can be undertaken. All such 
movements are slow and require time for maturing. Self-help is the 
best help immediately in view ; the largest part of school funds must 
be derived from local taxation, supplemented by state and county 
funds; and this principle should be applied vigorously and exten- 
sively. Fortunately, the tendency everywhere is in that direction. 

After a community has once succeeded in building up a good school, 
its cost generally ceases to be a matter of greater concern than the 

No. 232 



35 

results. In the writer's opinion, rural communities do not arrive at 
a conviction which leads to consolidation, by fine weighing of the 
financial aspect of the proposition. Many, who on general principles 
are opposed to consolidation, admit that the educational advantages 
to be gained considerably outweigh the cost. 

Consolidation justifies itself by superiority over the old system and 
needs no financial arguments as proof. In fact, in all farm communi- 
ties where it has been signally successful the imputation that the 
object in consolidating was cheaper rather than better schools would 
be indignantly resented by the farmers. 

STATE AID TO CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS. 

State aid to certain kinds and grades of public schools, for specific 
purposes, has accomplished great good ; and, under the present imper- 
fect system of financing schools, it is wise to utilize and even to extend 
that practice. Few fields promise the State larger returns than does 
aid to consolidated schools, whether for transportation, for high- 
school courses, or for the teaching of agriculture and home economics. 
Vermont was the first State to extend financial aid specifically for 
transportation to communities furnishing conveyance for children to 
consolidated schools. 

Eventually, by means of state aid, the more expensive vocational 
and industrial subjects will be taught in consolidated schools. The 
lawmakers of the State of Minnesota, having had exceptional oppor- 
tunities to observe in the school of agriculture in that State the bene- 
ficial results of vocational training for farm boys and girls, were 
probably the first in the United States to provide for agriculture 
and home economics in consolidated schools, and to set apart funds 
for that purpose in the form of liberal state aid. This law, enacted 
in 1907, provides for an appropriation from the state treasury to be 
distributed to the first 50 consolidated rural schools established, 
equipped, and conducted so as to meet given requirements. Among 
these are the following: That the area of the district shall be not 
less than 16 nor more than 36 square miles in area; that a con- 
tinuous tract of 10 acres of land be provided upon which the school 
building must be erected and that the land shall be managed to serve 
as a means of instruction for the pupils; that a principal teacher 
shall be employed to teach agriculture and an assistant principal to 
teach home economics; that the conveyance for pupils shall be pro- 
vided and that the schoolhouse shall be outside of any incorporated 
city or village. (Chap. 301, sec. 3, 1907.) 

COST OF SCHOOLING IN RURAL DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 

Before comparing the fiscal affairs of the two systems of schools, 
attention is directed to some peculiarities of the cost of schooling in 

No. 232 



36 

district schools, arising chiefly from irregularities of attendance and 
other conditions which vary greatly in different districts. Lack of 
uniformity and pronounced difference in organization and service 
make comparison between district and consolidated schools often 
unsatisfactory. 

In a civic unit sO small as the rural school district there is no flexi- 
bility. Its enrolment is determined by the school population. If 
the latter be large, the enrolment and attendance will be large and 
cost of schooling per pupil moderate ; if small, enrolment and attend- 
ance will be proportionately small and cost of schooling per pupil 
high. Under such circumstances, a uniform administration of dis- 
trict-school finances is extremely difficult, and the amount expended 
per pupil is what chance makes it. In thousands of rural districts, 
without exception as to geographical location, the ineffectiveness with 
which taxes are expended for school purposes passes unnoticed, be- 
cause the necessity of maintaining a school is paramount and obscures 
all other considerations. It is always taken for granted that the 
money accomplishes the purpose for which it is expended." 

If it be discovered that in any one school the average cost of school- 
ing per child exceeds that in other schools, it is perfectly logical to 
devise means for reducing it to a reasonable level, so that other chil- 
dren may benefit from the money saved. If, on the other hand, the 
average cost in any one school falls greatly below that of efficiently 
conducted schools, it is logical to expend more money in such school 
with the view of raising its standard. Divergent conditions, such 
as these, generally escape attention because published reports of 
averages of school statistics of counties or even of townships tend to 
level or equalize the extremes. The correct way of approaching this 
question of cost is through a study of individual schools, and then 
it will be seen that a rather large number of the school districts of a 
county are at one or the other extreme, and that almost without ex- 
ception cost is highest in schools with small attendance. Those op- 
posed to consolidation urge increased cost as an objection, yet knowl- 
edge of the true financial and educational status of their own district 
school would often show an expenditure of more money per child 
per day in school attendance than is expended in many consolidated 

a Throughout this bulletin the annual and daily expenditure (or cost) per 
pupil is used as a basis of comparison between schools. The annual expend- 
iture per pupil is obtained by dividing the total yearly expenditures of a school, 
exclusive of bonds, interest, and permanent improvements and buildings, by the 
average daily attendance; and the daily cost per pupil, by dividing the annual 
cost per pupil by the number of days of school. No good reason exists for the 
prevailing practice of basing cost of schooling upon teachers' wages, to the neg- 
lect of all other expenditures, nor for basing the cost of schooling per pupil upon 
the total or monthly enrolment. 
No. 232 



37 

schools. The importance of this subject demands that it be presented 
somewhat in detail from statistics collected from widely separated 
localities. 

IN BUBAL DISTBICT SCHOOLS IN DELAWABE. 

The State of Delaware, 5T.3 per cent of whose school population 
attends rural schools, supplies a good illustration for an entire State 
(Table 6) : 



Table 6. — Average annual cost of schooling per pupil in attendance in 1906 a in 
the rural district schools of the State of Delaware. 





Number 

of 
schools 
(State). 


Annual cost of schooling per pupil. 


Schools, attendance — 


State of 
Delaware. 


County. 




New- 
castle. 


Kent. 


Sussex. 




29 
139 

71 
18 


$41. 44 
22.70 
13.74 
10.63 


$48. 99 
26.15 
17.79 
17.72 


$37. 30 
21.24 
14.31 
9.93 


$34. 01 


11 to 20 


22.36 


21 to 30... 


12.69 




7.88 










18.98 


25.46 


18.92 


16.54 









° Based on figures taken from Report of Delaware Board of Education, 1906. 

Extraordinary variation is noticeable in expenditures for service 
which is supposed to be, and in justice should be, of equal standard 
and efficiency in all schools. Within the respective counties the ex- 
penditures vary between wide extremes. The cost of schooling in 
Sussex County varies from $7.88 to nearly five times that sum. In 
Kent County the highest cost is over three times that of the lowest, 
and in Newcastle County the highest cost exceeds the lowest nearly 
three times. The small schools are in all cases the most expensive. 

Every county in every State seems to have its quota of small and 
poorly attended rural schools. Kansas a has 1,629 district schools with 
attendance of 10 and less ; New Hampshire h reports 117 schools with 
6 pupils and less, and 383 schools with 12 and less. Out of a total of 
2,398 one-room schools, Maine c continues 206, having an average 
attendance of less than 8 ; Minnesota school statistics d show 335 
schools with attendance of less than 10 ; Michigan e has 1,500 ; and 
Nebraska f 1,200 of these small schools of 10 and fewer. 

a Bulletin of Information. State Superintendent of Instruction, Topeka, Ivans., 
1908, p. 8. 
6 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1908. 
c Maine School Report, 1908. 

d Reported by Office of State Department of Public Instruction, 1909. 
e Reported by Department of Public Instruction, Michigan, 1909. 
f Reported by Department of Public Instruction, Nebraska, 1910. 
No. 232 



38 

Thus it is seen that the number of small and expensive schools is 
larger than commonly supposed. They check the progress of the 
rural-school system and constitute a serious problem for superintend- 
ents and other educators. A resume of the expenditures and cost of 
schooling of pupils in small schools in several strong agricultural 
counties will illustrate. 

Data obtained from a number of such schools in Hardin County, 
Iowa, are given in Table 7. 

IN HARDIN COUNTY (IOWA) RURAL SCHOOLS WITH LOW ATTENDANCE. 



Table 7. — Average cost of schooling per pupil in 1908 in Hardin County {Iowa) 
rural district schools, ivhose average daily attendance was less than 9 pupils. 



Township. 


District. 


Average 
daily 

attend- 
ance. 


Length 

of schocl 

term. 


Total 
yearly ex- 
penditure. 


Cost per pupil. 


Per year. 


Per day. 






7 
7 
8 
5 
7 
6 
7 
6 
6 
5 
6 
6 
7 
6 
3 


Days. 
140 
160 
160 
140 
140 
160 
140 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 


$196. 00 
239. 68 
272. 00 
172. 40 
285. 67 
274. 08 
260. 19 
237. 60 
213. 12 
222. 40 
245. 76 
288. 00 
303. 24 
294. 96 
246. 48 


$28. 00 
34.24 
34.00 
34.48 
40.81 
45.68 
37.17 
39.60 
35.52 
44.48 
40.96 
48.00 
43.32 
49.16 
82.16 


Cents. 
20.0 






21.4 




District No. 8 


21.2 






24.6 




Pleasant Valley 


29.2 
28.6 


Clay 


Mineral Point 


26.6 




24.8 




District No. 2 

District No. 3 


22.2 
27.8 
25.6 




District No. 11 


30.0 




27.1 




District No. 6 


30.7 




District No. 8 


51.4 








Total 


92 


2,320 


3, 751. 58 


637. 38 












" 


155 


250. 11 


40.78 


27.5 









This is a large, fertile, and prosperous county. The land is prac- 
tically all tillable and approximates in value $100 per acre. The 
rural schools with low attendance are typical of like schools in hun- 
dreds of counties in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys in which the 
cost of schooling is excessive. 

In 15 districts in this county school facilities were provided for 
92 children at an average annual cost of 27.5 cents per day. This is 
10.1 cents higher per day than the cost of schooling in elementary 
grades of the consolidated schools investigated in northeastern Ohio 
(see Table 15). Even the district whose school expenditure was the 
lowest shows a higher daily cost by 2.1 cents than the average of 45 
typical consolidated schools (see Table 11). Moreover, the highest 
cost per pupil (30 cents, 30.7 cents, and 51.4 cents per day, respec- 
tively) exceeds greatly that in the average typical consolidated 
school. 

No. 232 



39 

IN OLMSTED COUNTY (MINN.) RURAL SCHOOLS. 

The high average expenditure per pupil in small schools of Hardin 
County and the number of schools making such expenditures are both 
exceeded by the same class of schools in Olmsted County, Minn. All 
the rural district schools in the last-named county, with an average 
daily attendance of less than 9 in 1907, are tabulated in Table 8 ; they 
were 17 in number, or 12 per cent of the total number of rural schools 
of the county, and the expenditure per pupil reached the extraor- 
dinary average of $56.49 per year, or 40 cents per day. 



Table 8. — Average cost of schooling per pupil in Olmsted County (Minn.) rural 
district schools, average daily attendance of which in 1908 was less than 9 
pupils. 



Township. 



Number 
of 

district. 



Average 

daily 
attend- 



Length 

of school 

term. 



Total 
yearly ex- 
penditure. 



Cost per pupil. 



Per year. Perd;:? 



Orinoco 

New Haven. 
Quincy 



Eyota . 



Marion 

Rochester. 



Rock Dell... 
High Forest. 



Orion . . 
Elmyra 



Total.... 
Average 



101 
32 
62 

110 
11 
45 

119 

39 

9 

132 

141 

142 
83 

113 
18 
63 

121 



Days 



ill 



5.3 



140 
140 
160 
140 
120 
160 
140 
160 
140 
160 
120 
120 
120 
120 
140 
160 
160 



$208. 20 
371. 34 
149. 33 
254. 62 
203. 97 
481. 63 
345. 07 
363. 59 
379. 34 
405. 90 
202. 21 
224. 00 
354. 11 
186. 04 
233. 25 
273. 57 
504. 61 



129. 74 
61.89 
37.33 
84.87 
34.00 

120. 41 
69.01 
60.60 

189. 67 
57.99 
40.44 
56.00 
59. 02 
31.01 
46.65 
39.08 
63.08 



2,400 



5, 140. 78 



56.49 



Cents. 
21.2 
44.2 
23.31 
60.6 
28.3 
76.8 
49.2 
43.2 
135.0 
46.6 
40.4 
46.6 
38.0 
25.84 
33.3 
24. 4 
39.4 



In many of these small schools the cost of schooling per pupil 
equals that in consolidated schools which have high-school courses, 
and the highest cost per pupil would go far toward maintaining him 
in college. 



UNDER SPECIFIED CONDITIONS. 



Fortunately, there are at hand data of cost of schooling in district 
schools under certain specified conditions of teachers' qualifications 
and equipment; these data are furnished by that high type of rural 
district school which has developed in Minnesota under a liberal state 
aid law. Under this law schools applying for state aid are classified 
into schools of the first and second grade, responding to certain quali- 
fications at the time of application. 

No. 232 



40 

The following are the rules governing the application for state aid : 

To be entitled to special state aid at $125 as a first-grade rural school the 
law and regulations of this department require : 

First. The school must have been maintained for the full period of eight 
months during the year. 

Second. The teacher shall hold a first-grade common-school state certificate, 
or one of higher rank, during the entire school year of eight months. (Note 
that a state certificate is required.) 

Third. The district shall have suitable school buildings, outhouses, library, 
and apparatus necessary for doing efficient work. 

Fourth. The school building and each room must be clean and well kept, and 
proper provision must oe made for heating and ventilating. 

Fifth. The school must be provided with sufficient blackboard, a large dic- 
tionary, one complete set of supplementary readers, in addition to the regular 
readeis used, and a library, to which must yearly be made additions to the 
amount of at least $10. 

Sixth. The application of each school must show that it has maintained its 
standard of efficiency, both in the work and in the equipment, and that some 
improvement has been made during the year. The school grounds must be 
kept neat, clean, orderly, and attractive. 

Seventh. Aid will not be granted to rural schools in which the average 
daily attendance is less than 12. 

To be entitled to special state aid of $75 as a second grade rural 
school, the requirements are the same, excepting that the teacher 
shall hold a certificate of at least second grade. 

This law amply fulfills the intention of its enactment. The state ex- 
penditures incurred under it are met from regular annual appropria- 
tions. These schools, meeting definite standards and answering to 
stated requirements, are at present the best type of district schools. 
For this reason the averages of cost of schooling at these schools not 
only set standards of cost for rural district schools of equal attend- 
ance everywhere, but also afford a trustworthy basis of comparison 
of district with consolidated schools. 

The Olmsted County district schools of the first and second 
grade are representative of this type of schools. Statistics of cost of 
schooling are given in Tables 9 and 10, respectively. 

No. 232 



41 



Table 9.- 



-Expenditure per school of the first grade and cost of schooling per 
pupil in 1907 in Olmsted County, Minn. 



Township. 


Number 

of 
district. 


Average 
daily 

attend- 
ance. 


Length 

of 
school 
term. 


Total 
yearly ex- 
penditure. 


Average cost per 
pupil. 




Per year. 


Per day. 




57 

121 
17 
36 
53 
49 
64 

132 
67 
3 
33 

105 
74 
44 
93 
94 

100 
67 
29 
35 
37 
52 
25 

112 
37 
86 
32 

124 

6 

89 

120 
81 

114 


14 

a8 
16 
20 
25 
17 
20 
<i7 
15 
20 
14 
25 
12 
22 
17 
19 
23 
15 
12 
14 
12 
20 
13 
16 
12 
12 
a6 
17 
17 
19 
15 
14 
22 


Days. 
180 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
160 
180 
180 
180 
160 
160 
170 
160 
160 
160 
180 
180 
160 
180 
160 
170 
160 
160 
140 
160 
180 
170 
160 
180 
160 


$585. 74 
504. 61 
647. 42 
511. 69 
534. 50 

463. 59 
507. 39 
405. 90 
477. 39 
748. 78 
578. 05 
624. 02 
474. 25 
475. 88 
491.40 
510. 00 
549. 83 

477. 39 
596. 76 

555. 60 
440. 78 
033. 05 
462. 68 
490. 11 
440.78 
500. 52 
371. 37 
441. 31 
483. 79 

596. 40 
532. 30 
569. 85 
725. 50 


841.84 
63.08 
40.46 
25.58 
21.38 
27. 27 
25.37 
57. 99 
31.83 
37.44 
41.29 
24. 96 
39.52 
21.63 
28.91 
26.84 
23.91 
31.83 
49.73 
39.69 
36.73 
31.65 
35.59 
30.63 
36.73 
41.71 
61.90 
25.96 
28.46 
31.39 
35.49 
40.70 
32.98 


Cents. 
23.2 




39.4 
25.3 




14.2 




13.4 




17.0 




15.9 
36.2 
19.9 




20.6 
22.9 




13.9 
24.7 


Viola 


13.5 




17.0 
16.8 
14.9 




19.9 
27.6 
22. 




23.0 
17.6 
22.2 




18.0 
23.0 




26.1 
44.2 
16.2 




15.8 
18.5 
22.2 




22.6 
20.6 


Total 




530 


5,490 


17, 408. 63 


1, 170. 47 














16.1 


166.4 


527. 53 


32.85 


21.3 









° School continued by special permission. 

Table 10. — Expenditure per school of the second grade and cost of schooling 
per pupil in 1907 in Olmsted County, Minn. 



Township. 


Number 

of 
district. 


Average 
daily 

attend- 
ance. 


Length 

of 
school 
term. 


Tntal 
yearly ex- 
penditure. 


Average cost per 
pupil. 




Per year. 


Per day. 




83 
59 
39 
127 
40 
42 
27 
30 


a6 
11 
18 
20 
11 
11 
21 
17 


Days. 
160 
140 
160 
160 
160 
160 
180 
180 


$354. 11 
244. 45 
494. 37 
338. 60 
422. 24 
431. 02 
387. 96 
508.25 


$59. 02 
22. 22 
27.46 
16.93 
38.39 
39.18 
18.47 
29.90 


Cents. 
36.9 




15.9 




17.2 
10.6 




24.0 




24.5 
10.3 




16.6 






115 


1,300 


3, 181. 00 


251. 57 














14.4 


162.5 


397. 62 


27.66 


IS. 5 









a School continued by special permission. 



No. 232 



42 

The data (Tables 9 and 10) indicate a definite relation between 
cost of schooling and equipment. Higher priced teachers and better 
equipment in the " first-grade " schools make their average cost per 
pupil higher than that in schools of the " second grade," the differ- 
ence being 2 cents per pupil daily. 

The wide variation in cost of schooling in the individual district 
schools of low attendance enumerated in Tables 6, 7, and 8 is not so 
apparent in the schools enumerated in Tables 9 and 10. In the latter 
type of schools the average daily attendance is larger, the average 
school term longer, and conditions are obviously more uniform. 
The data (Tables 9 and 10) are therefore of special value for pur- 
poses of comparison with other district schools. The average daily 
cost of schooling per pupil in these first and second grade schools — 
21.3 cents and 19.4 cents, respectively — suggests what a fair average 
cost of education per pupil should be under favorable conditions, 
such as every country child should enjoy, and such as it is to the 
credit of State and community to provide. 

A comparison of the cost of education in Minnesota district schools 
of the first and second grades with that of 45 typical consolidated 
schools in different parts of the United States shows surprisingly 
small differences. 

In Table 11 is shown the annual cost of schooling per pupil in 45 
typical consolidated schools. Taking into account the fact that the 
schools contributing these data are widely separated geographically 
and represent a great variety of local peculiarities and conditions, 
there is a noticeable uniformity of expenditure per pupil per year 
and per day; this fact lends some value to these averages as a basis 
for comparisons with other schools. 

No. 232 



43 



Table 11. — Expenditure per school and cost of schooling per pupil in 1907 in //5 
typical consolidated schools in various States. a 









Average 
daily 

attend- 
ance. 


Length 


Total 


Cost per pupil. 




County. 


Name of school. 


of school 


vearly ex- 


















term. 


penditure. 


Per year. 


Per day. 










Days. 






Cents. 


Florida 


Duval 


Six Mile Creek.. 


52 


120 


SI, 203. 43 


$23. 14 


19.3 






Huttos Chapel.. 


37 


120 


843. 35 


22.79 


19.0 




Hillsboro 


Turkey Creek . . 


124 


160 


3, 093. 35 


24.95 


15.6 








88 


160 


2, 390. 00 


27.16 


17.0 


Indiana 


Wabash 


Glen Lawn 


120 


120 


3,857.50 


32.15 


26.9 




Tippecanoe... 


Romnev 


122 


160 


5, 015. 50 


41.11 


25.7 






Lauramie 


354 


140 


10, 952. 81 


30.94 


22.1 






Township. 














Wabash 


Wea 


109 
142 


126 
140 


3, 960. 00 
2, 480. 00 


36.33 
17.46 


28.8 




Somerset 


12.5 




Sullivan 


Graysville 


175 


127 


2, 852. 05 


16.30 


12.8 




Elkhart 


Bristol 


184 
150 


160 
120 


5, 785. 84 
4, 580. 00 


31.44 
30.53 


19.6 




Newton 


25.4 








165 
102 


124 
150 


4, 018. 00 
2, 447. 00 


24.35 
23.99 


19.6 




Sterling 


16.0 






Stone Bluff 


106 


150 


1,812.66 


17.10 


11.4 




Montgomery . 




196 


160 


6, 350. 50 


32.40 


20.2 




Smartsburg 


105 


180 


3, 750. 00 


35.71 


19.8 






New Market 


187 


160 


5,651.00 


30.22 


18.9 








112 

106 


140 

140 


4, 982. 00 
3, 500. 00 


44. 48 
33.02 


31.8 




Youngs Chapel . 


23.6 






Whitesville 


115 


125 


3,469.00 


30.17 


24.1 






Royerton 


203 


140 


6, 882. 90 


33.91 


24.2 




Clay 

Buena Vista . . 




72 
254 


140 
180 


2, 714. 80 
5, 025. 79 


. 37.71 
19.79 


26.9 




Marathon 


11.0 




Dickinson 

Middlesex 


Tirrell 


117 

285 


160 
190 


4, 055. 00 
9,157.47 


34.66 
32.13 


21.7 


Massachusetts . 


Ashland 


16.9 




Worcester 


Petersham 


102 


190 


5, 770. 24 


56.57 


29.8 


Minnesota 


Winona 


Lewiston 


125 


180 


3, 868. 68 


30.95 


17.2 


North Dakota . 


Nelson 


Cleveland 


51 


190 


2,851.13 


55.90 


29.4 




Rolette 


Mount Pleasant. 


178 


180 


7, 103. 47 


39.91 


22.2 






St. John 


69 


140 


3, 526. 87 


51.11 


36.5 




Nelson 


Cleveland 


77 


180 


2, 333. 53 


30.31 


16.8 


Ohio 






114 
228 


175 

120 


4, 800. 00 
10, 739. 75 


42.11 

47.10 


24.1 




Clinton 


Lees Creek 


33.6 




Trumbull 




132 
122 


160 
160 


5, 764. 04 
4,611.30 


43.67 
37.80 


27.3 




Southington 


23.6 








126 
133 

158 


160 
160 
160 


5, 382. 78 
6, 473. 40 
5,011.59 


42.72 
48.67 
31.72 


26.7 






30.4 




Gustavus 


19.8 






Johnston 


140 


160 


5, 130. 64 


36.65 


22.9 






Kinsman 


142 


160 


6, 714. 35 


47.28 


29.6 




Ashtabula 


Williamsfield... 


160 


160 


6, 110. 30 


38.20 


23.9 




Summit 

Geauga 




194 
109 


150 
160 


6,568.62 
4, 436. 24 


33.86 
40.70 


22.6 




Auburn 


25.4 






Parkman 


117 


160 


3, 736. 00 


31.93 


20.0 


Total 


6,259 


6,897 


211,762.88 


1,551.10 












Average . 


139.1 


153.3 


4, 705. 84 


33.83 


22.5 











" Data gathered locally from reports of county auditors, county superintendents of 
schools, treasurers of school boards, and principals of schools. 

Average area of consolidated districts square miles 29 

Average number of school wagons employed per school 4| 

Average number of pupils per school : 

Enrolled in elementary course . 151 

Enrolled in high-school course 27 

Total 178 

Conveyed at public expense 107 

At 20 of these consolidated schools music is taught, at 8 manual training, and at 7 
agriculture. 

The Olmsted County district school boys and girls may attend any 
of four high schools free of tuition, but are dependent upon their own 
resources to reach them, which, in a county 660 square miles in area is, 
in the case of many pupils, attended with some difficulty and no little 

No. 232 



44 

expense. On the other hand, the consolidated schools enumerated in 
Table 11 convey the pupils to and from school at public expense. 

Assuming 4 square miles to be the size of the average small school 
district, approximately 7 were united to form the average consoli- 
dated school in the table — about 29 square miles. The total con- 
solidated school expenditures apportioned to each original school 
district would therefore amount to one-seventh of the consolidated 
district or $672.26, which is more than the expenditure of the ordi- 
nary one-teacher district school, and doubtless more than the original 
schools expended before consolidation. The communities have 
learned to tax themselves for school purposes and do it cheerfully, 
and now that they see results, would not under any circumstances 
return to the former system of many small schools. 

The average cost of schooling per pupil per day in district schools 
of the first and second grade in Olmsted County is 21.3 and 19.5 cents 
respectively, in typical consolidated schools it is 22.5 cents; a differ- 
ence of 1.1 cents per pupil per day in the first case and of 3.0 cents 
per pupil per day in the second case. The district schools offer an 
eight-year elementary course, the consolidated schools the same course 
plus two to four years in high school and furnish public conveyance. 
Hence the 1.1 cents and 3.0 cents daily per child represent the sum, by 
the expenditure of which the communities with consolidated school 
secure the additional advantages. Communities in the richer farm- 
ing sections should have little difficulty to raise that additional com- 
paratively small sum per child, and with some state aid the possibility 
of consolidated schools could be brought to many communities in even 
the less wealthy sections of the country. 

As the average cost of schooling pupils per day and year at these 
typical consolidated schools may safely be taken as a figure repre- 
senting a fair general average, any community knowing accurately 
the cost of schooling in each of its rural schools can make its own com- 
parisons and draw its own inferences as to what additional expend- 
iture per child in township or county would secure the more ex- 
tended courses of typical consolidated schools. 

In explanation of the fact that the total expenditures for school 
purposes in a given rural community is higher when maintaining 
consolidated than when maintaining district schools, it is submitted 
that children attend more years of school, extending the attendance 
into the upper grammar grades and the high school. Under the 
stimulus of public conveyance more children attend and do so more 
regularly, and that adds to the cost of conveyance. 

The cost of teaching in rural district schools is slowly but steadily 
rising, and may eventually raise the cost of schooling in district 
schools generally near to or even in excess of that in consolidated 
schools. Such conditions are neither impossible nor improbable. 

No. 232 



45 

Even now there are entire counties where high wages prevail, either 
because of legal enactment or of scarcity of teachers, and where the 
cost of teaching in district schools equals, or even exceeds that in 
consolidated schools. A case in point is Ada County, Idaho, which 
pays teachers in one-room rural schools an average monthly wage of 
$62.02. The average annual cost of schooling per pupil ranges from 
$26.47 to $89.20, and averages for all the one-room schools of the 
entire county $44.46, or $10.63 in excess of that of the 45 consolidated 
schools (Table 11), which include high schools and provide conditions 
under which the rural vocational subjects may be taught. 

COMPARISON OF COST OF MAINTENANCE OE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS AND 
DISTRICT SCHOOLS IN THE SAME COUNTY AND UNDER SIMILAR CON- 
DITIONS. 

Statistics collected in the northeastern Ohio townships (p. 20) 
make possible a comparison of the school expenditures of district 
and consolidated school townships under identical local conditions 
of population, agriculture, roads, and general wealth. It will also 
be observed that those townships, while prosperous, are not wealthy. 
Communities in better financial circumstances might put in operation 
consolidated schools with considerably greater ease. Table 12 illus- 
trates the financial and other conditions in these townships. 



Table 12. — Average area, valuation, tax rate, and tax levy of three consoli- 
dated-school townships and three district-school townships in Ashtabula and 
Trumbull counties, Ohio. 



Item. 



Area acres.. 

Assessed value of lands dollars.. 

Assessed value of personal property do 

Total valuation taxable property do 

Rate of taxation: 

School purposes mills. . 

All purposes do 

Tax levied: 

School purposes dollars. . 

All purposes do 



Consoli- 
dated-school 
townships. 



16, 238 
271, 081 
187, 282 
458, 363 

11.25 

18.82 

5, 171. 12 

8, 657. 95 



District- 
school 
townships. 



16, 290 
282, 077 
225,088 
507, 165 

5.05 
14.13 

2, 465. 30 
7, 211. 97 



The figures in Table 12 represent the three years' (1903-1905) average of the consoli- 
dated-school townships Kinsman, Johnston, and Greene, and of the district-school town- 
ships Williamsfield, Champion, and Southington. 

Table 12 shows the taxable wealth of these townships and the 
taxes levied therein for the support of the township, county, and 
state government. While the rate of taxation for school purposes 
in the consolidated is larger than in the district-school townships, 
in part because of payments on a school building, there is no such 
great difference in the rates for all purposes nor in the " taxes levied 
for all purposes." At the time of collecting the statistics, the dis- 
trict-school townships were carrying on various public improve- 
No. 232 



46 

ments — ditching, bridge and road building — necessitating a special 
tax levy, which caused their total tax levy nearly to approach that 
of the consolidated townships. 

In Ohio funds for school purposes are derived from several 
sources. The state apportionment consists of the income from the 
state school fund and the income from the sale of school lands. In 
addition are the local school taxes and the reverting funds from the 
dog tax, cigarette tax, and other forms of minor taxes. 

Table 13. — School funds of three consolidated and three district-school town- 
ships in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, Ohio. a 



Source of funds. 


Consolida- 
ted-school 
townships. 


District- 
school 
townships. 




$330. 86 

12.36 

5, 067. 92 


$306. 98 




11.93 




2,001.22 
12.18 






592. 33 


134. 26 








6, 003. 47 


2,466.57 





"Average 1903, 1904, and 1905. 

Table 13" shows that in these Ohio townships the state apportion- 
ment amounts to only a very small fraction of the total school rev- 
enue for either consolidated or 'district schools. The bulk of the 
school funds is raised by local taxation. In the townships with 
consolidation, 84.4 per cent of the school revenues is raised by local 
taxation and only 5.7 per cent is derived from state apportionments. 
In the townships with district schools, 81.1 per cent of the entire 
school receipts is derived from local taxation and 12.9 per cent 
from the state fund. 

Included in the $5,067.92 of local taxes for school purposes in the 
consolidated-school townships is a levy for bond redemption and 
interest ($703.21), which makes their taxes appear unduly large. 

After the redemption of building bonds, the levy for school pur- 
poses is likely to drop to about 9 mills, and a steadily increasing tax 
valuation may also be instrumental in causing the tax rate to go to 
a lower figure. 

Turning next to the disbursements of these two groups of town- 
ships, the one with district and the other with consolidated schools, 
it was desirable to obtain a cost statement by which the eight grades 
of the elementary course of the former might be comparable with the 
same grades of the latter. Accordingly, the cost of elementary and 
high-school education was computed separately, as appears in Tables 
14 and 15; in this form a number of comparisons are facilitated, 
extending to details in the cost of teaching, supervision, supplies, 
fuel, and other particulars. 

No. 232 



47 

Table 14. — Average annual current school expenditure and itemized expendi- 
ture per pupil of three district-school townships in Ashtabula and Trumbull 
counties, Ohio. a 



Item. 



Elementary grades 
lto8. 



Average 
annual 
current ex- 
penditures, 



Average 
annual 
cost per 
pupil. 



Teachers' wages 

Tuition for high-school pupils p lid by township 

Fuel 

Repairs 

Contingent expenses 

Supplies 

Total 



L, 951. 70 
60.00 

127. 63 
45.64 

318. 98 
27.78 



3.24 



2, 532. 65 



1.19 
.43 

2.98 
.26 



23.77 



"Average 1903, 1904, and 1905 ; data taken from the books of treasurers of school 
boards of respective townships. 

The district schools entering into this three years' average are 24 in number ; 7 located 
in Williamsfield, 9 in Champion, and 8 in Southington townships, or an average of 8 
per township. 

Average daily attendance in grades 1 to 8, 104 ; per cent of enrolled pupils attending, 
67.9 ; average length of school term, 166 days ; average cost of schooling per pupil per 
day in elementary grades, 14.6 cents ; average number of pupils attending high school, 
4.2. Without data on the additional private expense to students attending distant high 
schools, the cost per day of high-school attendance can not be given. 

Table 15. — Average annual current school expenditure and itemized expenditure 
per pupil in the 12 grades (elementary and high school) of three consolidated- 
school townships in Trumbull County, Ohio. a 



Item. 



Average annual current expendi- 
ture. 



Grades 1-8 
(elemen- 
tary). 



Grades 9-12 

(high 

school). 



Total. 



Average annual cost 
per pupil. 



Grades 1-8 
(elemen- 
tary). 



Grades 9-12 

(high 

school). 



Teachers' wages 

Superintendence 

Transportation 

Fuel.". 

Repairs 

Janitor 

Contingent expenses 
Supplies 

Total 



8782. 77 

80.00 

1,809.06 

93.37 

4.27 

102. 61 

256. 56 

45.64 



3.76 



396. 30 
20.48 
.90 
22.50 
56.48 
10.01 



81,466.53 

80.00 

2, 205. 36 

113.85 

5.17 

125. 11 

313.04 

55.65 



86.87 
.70 

15. 87 
.82 
.04 
.90 
2.25 
.40 



827. 35 



15. 85 
.82 
.04 
.90 
2.26 
.40 



3, 174. 28 



1,190.43 



4, 364. 71 



27.84 



47. 62 



"Average for three townships for 1903, 1904, and 1905. Data taken from the books 
of the treasurer of school boards of the respective townships. Average daily attendance 
grades 1 to 8 (elementary), 114; average daily attendance grades 9 to 12 (high school), 
25 ; average length of school term, 160 days ; per cent of enrolled pupils attending, 87.5 ; 
average cost of schooling per pupil per day elementary, 17.4 cents ; average cost of school- 
ing per pupil per day high school, 29.8 cents ; average cost of schooling per pupil in the 
entire school, elementary and high, per year, $31.40 ; per day, 19.6 cents. 

As all pupils in the townships have common use of the buildings, 
school wagons, heat, janitors' service, etc., the cost per pupil for these 
items of running expenses has been prorated per pupil, based on the 
total attendance at school, irrespective of grade or age of pupil. The 
wages, however, of the teachers in the elementary and high school 
grades were charged against the respective grades in which they 
taught. 

No. 232 



48 

Deductions from the foregoing cost statistics brought forward in 
this chapter can be stated only in general terms, because of individual 
peculiarities of the school affairs of different communities, which 
differ in their attitude toward education exactly as do persons. The 
consolidated-school townships in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, 
northeastern Ohio, which were made the subject of special study, had 
in 1906 a taxable valuation, per child of school age, of $2,247, and the 
district-school townships a valuation of $2,641. Many communities, 
however, undertake consolidation of their schools on a much smaller 
financial basis. One township in Clay County, Iowa, has a successful 
consolidated graded school, and the taxable wealth supporting it is 
about $1,414 per child; nine townships with consolidated schools in 
Roulette County, N. Dak., have an average of $956 of taxable prop- 
erty per child ; and two large districts in Orange County, Fla., have 
$916 and $740, respectively, per child. School improvement through 
consolidation is a cultural movement, and is shown by statistics to be 
a privilege of not only the wealthy districts of the country, but to be 
participated in by many temporarily less favored. 

The financial aspect of rural-school consolidation has at times been 
given undue prominence by persons endeavoring to demonstrate that 
consolidation greatly lessens the cost of schools to a community, this 
in order to pacify taxpayers who object to expenditures for school 
purposes larger than their communities have been in the habit of 
making in the past. But the danger is of losing sight of the cen- 
tral idea — the consolidated school as a country-life institution. Com- 
parisons of cost between district and consolidated schools should be 
made cautiously. In such comparisons, made solely on the face of 
the figures, due weight can not be given to differences of supervision, 
equipment, teachers' qualifications, conveniences, and general effi- 
ciency. Nor is it possible to assign to these many factors definite 
comparable values; they should, however, be carried in mind con- 
stantly. Comparisons that do not take into account these differences 
are apt to be misleading. 

Attention has been directed to district schools in which the cost 
of schooling was extremely low and to others where it was excep- 
tionally high. Statistics have also been introduced to show that the 
total number of district schools with low attendance and consequent 
high cost of schooling maintained in farming regions is very large. 
The district schools with an attendance of 10 and less, typifying these 
conditions, in representative Iowa and Minnesota counties, were 
found to exceed consolidated schools in cost of schooling per pupil 
per day. The cost of schooling in the district schools of the first and 
second grade in Olmsted County, Minn. — representatives of the best 
of this class of schools — was shown to be within 1.1 and 3.0 cents, 
respectively, per pupil per day of that in typical consolidated schools. 
In fact, statistics of schools of the first and second grades in Min- 

No. 232 



49 

nesota indicate that whenever district schools endeavor to meet 
higher requirements or permanently to raise their standards to those 
of consolidated schools, the cost immediately rises and differs but 
slightly from that of typical consolidated schools. A comparison of 
the cost of elementary schooling was made between a group of town- 
ships with district schools and an adjacent group (of about the same 
number of square miles, population, and wealth) of townships with 
consolidated schools, and the difference was shown to be only 2.8 cents 
per pupil per day. 

It was also shown that on an average the total expenditure for 
teachers' wages in the district school townships was nearly twice that 
in the consolidated school townships, namely, $1,951.70 as against 
$862.77, which latter included supervision by the high-school prin- 
cipal in one building. The great difference in cost of teachers' wages, 
$18.24 per pupil per year, in the district schools and only $6.80 per 
pupil per year in the consolidated school, was explained by the larger 
rate of attendance and graded classes in the latter. 

The community or township with only district schools, in place 
of maintaining a local high school, secures for the education of the 
more favored of its children the services of a high school in some 
distant city, township, or village. The payment of tuition in high 
school is generally a matter of contract directly between the high 
school and the patrons or the high school and the State, county, or 
township, as the law in the case may be. The community or district 
with a consolidated school, on the other hand, insists on administer- 
ing its own school and high-school affairs, and on bringing equal 
educational advantages to every child in the community, the chief 
object being efficiency of service. 

The largest item of cost of consolidated schools is for transporta- 
tion. This, in case of the Trumbull County schools cited, amounts 
to a daily average of 11.3 cents per pupil, and is justifiable on the 
ground that it secures numerous advantages unobtainable in the dis- 
trict schools. The expenditure for transportation adds to the total 
cost of conducting the school without greatly adding to the cost of 
schooling per individual pupil as compared with district schools. 
This is explained by the larger attendance which public conveyance 
secures. A community which expends on schooling $30 and upward 
annually per pupil, and opposes consolidation, can not consistently do 
so on the score of increased cost. 

The publication annually in the local papers of an analytical 
statement of the affairs of the district schools of the county or of 
the townships or of groups of townships would materially help the 
patrons and taxpayers to understand the local school situation and 
might possibly in many cases lead to betterments, though not neces- 
sarily to consolidation. 

54634°— Bull. 232—10 4 



50 

For example, it would be possible to assemble data making com- 
parisons between arbitrarily defined districts, or groups of districts, 
or portions of counties, etc., having reference to certain local condi- 
tions or to definite plans proposed. Or data from district schools 
could be grouped and coordinated with the definite purpose in view 
of showing or explaining one certain condition and conveying one 
particular line of information relating to school affairs or plans, 
or affairs of individual schools or of projected plans in the county. 
Such data would relate to matters of daily attendance, rate of at- 
tendance, size of schools, classes, current expenses per school, cost of 
schooling per pupil ; it might extend to the rate of high school attend- 
ance and cost thereof, circumstances under which rural children 
attend high school, the distribution of the high school attendance 
relative to the location of the high school, amounts of money ex- 
pended by parents in paying transportation, board, and incidental 
expenses of children attending high school, boarding schools, acad- 
emies, and seminaries. 

Much of this information can be shown graphically by being 
placed upon an outline map of the county, showing the boundaries 
of the school districts and location of schools. In this manner com- 
parisons and groupings are made possible and can be shown in a 
much more vivid manner than by a formal statistical table. The 
need in every rural community is for fuller information on local 
facts relating to matters educational and for local leaders who, with 
the help of school officials, will interpret these facts and formulate 
them into constructive policies. 

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AT CONSOLIDATED AND RURAL DISTRICT 

SCHOOLS. 

That the small and irregular attendance at district schools is one 
of the most serious problems with which educators have to deal 
scarcely calls for proof. The greatest obstacles to regular attendance 
are inclement weather, poor condition of roads and fields, scant 
clothing, cold floors in schoolhouses, colds, coughs, bronchitis, and a 
long list of disabilities and ailments. County superintendents in 
a few localities have succeeded in bettering attendance by annually 
granting diplomas or prizes for perfect attendance. But this method 
appeals to only a few individuals and will probably never become 
extensive enough to induce the mass of the school population of town- 
ships, counties, and States to maintain a general good attendance. 
Furthermore, a system of rewards, to be effective, must be constantly 
renewed and varied, while the beneficial influence of public convey- 
ance of pupils acts automatically and uniformly year after year. 

The plan of patrons furnishing transportation for their own chil- 
dren is not to be compared in effectiveness with public transportation. 

No. 232 



51 

This is best exemplified in the wealthy agricultural counties of some 
of the Middle Western States. In one county in Iowa, where many 
parents provide their children with suitable vehicles, the average 
attendance is only 61.4 per cent of the enrolment, and in individual 
schools it is as low as 30 per cent. Irregular attendance is, in gen- 
eral, characteristic of rural district schools everywhere without dis- 
tinction of State or county. The average rural attendance of en- 
rolled pupils in the United States is about 60 per cent, suggesting 
that there are entire States where it is very low. One State, whose 
average per cent of attendance of pupils enrolled in rural schools 
is 43.3, has eight schools with an attendance of less than 30 per cent 
of the enrolment. It has been found that where consolidated schools 
depend solely upon a conveyance provided privately — that is by the 
children's parents — attendance is but little better than in district 
schools where children walk. The plan is seldom satisfactory. 

PUBLIC CONVEYANCE INCREASES RURAL SCHOOL PATRONAGE. 

The facility and regularity with which pupils are brought to the 
consolidated school has the same effect as shortening the distance 
between the farm home and the school. The child in its most impor- 
tant task — attending school — is assisted by an agency which leaves 
nothing to chance and little to choice. The wagon service does away 
with the " hit-and-miss " method of going to school on foot, and es- 
tablishes a system differing in no essential respect from that illus- 
trated by the nicely timed schedules of railroad trains. Free public 
conveyance and other features peculiar to consolidation are conducive 
to greatly improved school patronage. 

The stream of children which the school wagon starts schoolward 
is so strong and steady that the educational affairs of the community 
assume a totally different complexion. This is shown by a compari- 
son of the attendance in the Ohio townships investigated, which well 
represent conditions at average district and consolidated schools in 
the United States. The figures are given for each township sepa- 
rately and may aid interested readers in making comparisons between 
these and their home schools (Table 16). 

The leading facts of Table 16 are that the consolidated schools en- 
rolled a larger percentage of the school population of the consolidated 
townships than did the district schools of the district townships; that 
the daily school attendance at the former was better than at the 
latter, and that nearly 27 per cent more of the total school popula- 
tion attended school in the communities having consolidated than in 
those having district schools. Broadly speaking, under similar con- 
ditions, the former had an attendance larger by one-fourth than the 
latter. A compulsory school-attendance law is rigidly enforced in 

No. 232 



52 

that section of Ohio; hence the larger proportion of school popula- 
tion which the consolidated schools attracted represents voluntary 
attendance of pupils of over the legal school age. In view of this 
fact, the remarkable enrolment and attendance at the Greene consoli- 
dated school deserves notice, 95 per cent of the school population of 
the township being enrolled, and 76.5 per cent thereof being in actual 
daily attendance. 



Table 16. — School population, enrolment, and average daily attendance in three 
consolidated and three district school townships in Ashtabula and Trumbull 
counties, Ohio. a 



Township. 



Consolidated: 

Kinsman 

Johnston 

Greene 

District: 

Williamsfleld 

Champion 

Southington 

Average: 

Consolidated township 

District township 

Per cent of increase in favor of con- 
solidation 



School popu- 
lation. 



192 
224 
196 

187 
209 
181 

204 

192 



Per 

square 
mile. 



7.6 
8.9 

7.8 

7.5 
8.0 
7.2 

8.0 
7.6 



Enrolment. 



157 
189 
186 

155 

155 
148 

177 
153 



Per cent 
of school 
popula- 
tion. 



81.8 
84.4 
94.9 

82.9 

74.2 
81.7 

86~8 
79.6 



Attendance. 



121 
148 
150 

100 
109 
102 

139 

104 



Per cent 
of enrol- 
ment. 



77.1 
78.3 
80.6 

64.5 
70.3 
68.9 

78.5 
68.0 



Per cent 
of school 
popula- 
tion. 



63.0 
66.1 
76.5 

53.5 
52.1 
56.4 

68.1 
54.2 

26.5 



" Average 1903, 1904, and 1905. 

If consolidation had no other advantage, increased patronage 
should gain it the favor of the taxpayer, because of the assurance 
that the taxes are expended upon an institution which offers educa- 
tional advantages to every child in the community. Where the 
school population per square mile is low — 6 or 7 per square mile — 
and the attempt is made to locate the district schoolhouse with a 
view to ease of access, the one-room school district must necessarily 
be small and the enrolment very low. On the other hand, if large 
and strong schools are desired, districts must be made so extensive 
that walking distances for some children are considerable, and to 
that patrons naturally object. For example, take the Trumbull 
County (Ohio) consolidated townships, Kinsman, Johnston, and 
Greene. Before consolidation they averaged nine district schools each 
(Table 17), or approximately one school for every 3 square miles. 
There was an average school population of 7.6 pupils per square mile, 
of which 76 per cent were enrolled, and 74 per cent of the enrolment 
was in attendance; this made the average school with an average 
attendance of only about 12 pupils. The alternative of abandoning 

No. 232 



53 

one-half of the schools and compelling some of the children to walk 
nearly twice as far as before was not to be supported, therefore con- 
solidation was the only logical step and was, in fact, adopted as the 
only solution of the problem. It is safe to say that thousands of 
rural school districts are at this moment in much the same situation. 

The statistics show that in the communities where children walked 
to school, only 54 per cent of the school population attended regu- 
larly; whereas in communities where the school wagons regularly 
called at the farm homes, 68 per cent attended. 

The profound changes which consolidation works in the school 
patronage in communities is shown by what it has accomplished in 
the Kinsman, Johnston, and Greene townships of Trumbull County. 
Here comparative attendance statistics were compiled for the same 
townships for a period of three years previous to consolidation, and 
for a three-year period after consolidation. These may be seen in 
Table 17. 

Table 17. — Average number of schools, school population, enrolment, and daily 
attendance of a group of three townships of Trumbull County, Ohio, for three 
years before and three years after consolidation. 



Item. 


Before 
consoli- 
dation. 


After 
consoli- 
dation. 


Per cent 
of in- 
crease. 






9.3 

194 


1 
204 




School population 


do.... 

do.... 

do.... 

do.... 

do.... 

do.... 

do... 


5.2 


Enrolment: 

Elementary 

High school 


136 
12 


144 
33 


5.9 
175.0 


Total enrollment 


148 


177 


19.6 


Attendance: 

Elementary 

High school 


99 
11 


114 
25 


15.2 
127. 3 


Total attendance 


110 


139 


26.3 



The increase of 15.2 per cent in the attendance in the elementary 
grades, 127.3 per cent in the high-school grades, and 26.3 per cent in 
the school attendance of the entire township justifies any reasonable 
increase of expenditures by the school board. If, by the establish- 
ment of a consolidated school, such phenomenal changes in the educa- 
tional affairs of a community are possible, any school board under- 
taking to effect this deserves the fullest moral and financial support 
of the community. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY GRADES. 

The fact of greater enrolment and attendance in the consolidated 
schools being established, it is of interest to note the distribution of 
the attendance through all the grades of the district and consolidated 

No. 232 



54 



schools investigated in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties. The Ohio 
school law requires the grading of all rural schools, and as each school 
in the six townships was visited, the grade of each pupil was recorded 
(Table 18). 

Table 18. — Average a daily attendance by grades of three consolidated and three 
district school townships in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, Ohio, and 
number of possible students of agriculture in 1906. 



Grade. 


Average daily attend- 
ance. 


Possible students of 
agriculture, etc., in 

. average daily attend- 
ance. 


Consoli- 
dated- 
school 
townships. 


District- 
school 
townships. 


Consoli- 
dated- 
school 
townships. 


District- 
school 
townships. 


First 


17.0 
17.0 
18.0 
17.0 
17.3 
14.3 
• 14.3 
8.6 
11.0 
6.3 
3.6 


17.3 
17.3 
15.0 
25.7 
20.3 
15.3 
9.3 
5.0 

4.0 












Third 












Fifth 






Sixth 








14.3 
8.6 
f 11.0 
1 6.3 
1 3.6 
{ 5.6 


9.3 


Eighth 


5.0 


Ninth 


1 


Tenth 


! 




} 4.0 


Twelfth 


5.6 |J 


J 






Total 


150. 


125. 2 


49.4 


18.3 







° The three consolidated schools had an aggregate attendance of 451 and the district 
schools an aggregate of 376 pupils. The school population was practically the same in 
both cases. 

The children in the consolidated schools passed through the grades 
practically without interruption until the sixth grade, where a de- 
cline in attendance occurred. The heaviest loss was in passing from 
the seventh to the eighth grade. As a whole these figures give evi- 
dence of a remarkable regularity of attendance in the townships with 
consolidated schools. 

The fluctuations in the attendance in the different grades of the 
district schools are especially noteworthy. The largest attendance 
was in the fourth grade, where a sort of banking up or crowding 
seems to have taken place ; in the fifth grade 20 per cent of the pupils 
dropped out, another 25 per cent ceased in the sixth grade, and there 
was a larger proportionate decline in each subsequent grade. 

Probably the most plausible explanation of the school defection 
so prevalent in the district schools is lack of interest due to an 
uninviting atmosphere, absence of attractive surroundings, monotony 
of school work because of small classes, scarcity of associates of simi- 
lar age, difficulty of access or, in short, lack of a proper " school 
atmosphere." Unfavorable influences, if at all existent in the con- 
solidated schools, are much less manifest than in the district schools. 
The number who discontinued before completing the elementary 

No. 232 



55 

course was smaller, and the children passed through the critical drop- 
ping-out period and went forward into the upper elementary and 
high-school grades in larger numbers. 

The statistics (Table 18) have an important bearing on the sub- 
ject of teaching studies in and related to agriculture and home eco- 
nomics in rural schools. The data show that in consolidated schools 
such studies can not only be brought to a larger number of pupils, 
but it can be done with greater ease. The consolidated townships, 
besides having a total of 25 more pupils in school, had 22 more pupils 
in high school than the district-school townships. With a properly 
qualified teaching force the teaching of vocational studies could be 
extended to the seventh and eighth grades of the consolidated schools. 
Then there were approximately 50 (see Table 18, third column) 
pupils sufficiently advanced to enter classes in agriculture and home 
economics, as against 18 (see Table 18, fourth column) in the town- 
ships with district schools. 

This consolidated-school township, instead of being impoverished 
of children by sending the advanced pupils away to distant public 
or nonpublic schools or by the children remaining out of school, has 
vigorous classes of older pupils. It is able efficiently to teach general 
and vocational subjects, and is a strong social force in the community. 

In the one-room schools a highly trained teacher may no doubt 
successfully teach general farm-life subjects. But district school 
teachers familiar with these subjects are not numerous; in fact, are 
almost unobtainable; and the teaching of agriculture and home- 
making studies in district schools must for some time to come be 
difficult of attainment. Itinerant teachers of agriculture and home 
economics could be employed in several schools and visit each at 
stated intervals. The generally small attendance at district schools, 
however, is against the general adoption of such a scheme, but it 
might very successfully be adopted as a temporary expedient; in 
regions where geographic features necessitate retaining the district 
system a plan of itinerant teaching of vocational studies could be 
permanently incorporated into the school system. In the consoli- 
dated schools the number of pupils is usually large, hence it is 
practicable to engage a principal and an assistant, trained in teach- 
ing agriculture and home economics, and under their direction the 
teaching of farm subjects, either directly or as related to the com- 
mon branches, can be done with a breadth and thoroughness not 
attainable in the small, scattered district schools. 

No. 232 



56 

EDUCATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF CONSOLIDATED AND DISTRICT 

SCHOOLS. 

As a matter of course, comparison of the efficiency of the two forms 
of school can not extend to achievements of pupils, but must confine 
itself to general facts verifiable by statistics and related chiefly to 
economical utilization of the time available for school work, effective 
division of school time, and superintendence of schools and qualifica- 
tions of teachers. 

To prevent misconception of the expression " economical utiliza- 
tion of time," it is necessary to understand that the school period of 
a child represents to him or her something of very definite value. 
There are 8 school years of from 120 to 180 days of about 4^ hours 
each, or a total of between 4,300 and 6,500 hours in which to acquire 
knowledge of the common branches. Crowding children through 
school or having them " put in " a certain number of hours per day 
and per year on a sort of factory plan is not here countenanced; it 
is important, however, that the 4,300 to 6,500 hours of the child's 
presence in school be profitably employed, as much for the cultivation 
of habits of study, of power of application, and for discipline, as for 
the acquisition of knowledge. A detailed study of the school work 
and of the manner in which pupils spend their school hours in both 
kinds of school shows that they differ in important fundamental 
features. 

ECONOMIC UTILIZATION OF THE TIME AVAILABLE EOR SCHOOL 

WORK. 

The statistics gathered corroborate the popular observation that 
children in communities with consolidated schools start to school at 
a more advanced and finish at an earlier age than do children in 
communities with small district schools. 

There may be in some cases reluctance on the part of parents 
to send the younger children out in the school wagon, fearing that 
the ride may be wearisome. In some cases when a younger child 
happens to live at or near the end of a long route, the early departure 
of the school wagon may influence some mothers to defer sending it 
to school. In any event, it is a fact that, at the schools here recorded, 
children began school on an average seven-tenths of a year older at 
the consolidated than at the district schools. In Table 19 the ages of 
376 children in attendance at the district schools of three townships 
are compared with those of 451 children in attendance at consolidated 
schools of three other townships. Following the progress of the 
pupils from grade to grade, it will be seen that in the fourth grade 
the ages at both kinds of school almost coincide ; ages in the consoli- 
dated schools at this point being approximately the same as those 

No. 232 



57 

in the district schools. The difference of 0.7 year or 8.4 months in 
the eighth grade is noteworthy. It shows a saving of two-thirds of 
a year for the pupils in the consolidated school. At 15.2 years, 4.8 
months older than the average eighth-grade district-school pupil, the 
boy or girl in the consolidated school is well started in the first year 
of high school. 

This gain of two-thirds of a year is to many pupils a very encour- 
aging factor in the decision to take up high-school work. The boy 
or girl has not yet reached the age at which he or she begins to feel 
out of place among younger associates. It makes it possible for 
pupils to secure nearly one year of high-school work before the pupils 
of the district school have finished the elementary course. It enables 
the young men or women earlier to become productive workers. 

Table 19. — Average age of pupils, by grades, in three district and three consoli- 
dated school townships in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, Ohio, 1906. 



Grade. 



ELEMENTARY. 



Consolidated townships. 



Kins- 
man. 



Years. 



First grade 

Second grade 

Third grade 

Fourth grade 

Fifth grade 

Sixth grade I 12. 5 

Seventh grade 14. 

Eighth grade 14.1 



7.0 
9.0 

8.8 
10.4 
11.2 



HIGH SCHOOL. 



First year . . . 
Second year. 
Third year. . 
Fourth year. 



15.4 
15.7 
16.4 
17.0 



John- 
ston. 



I ears. 
7.5 
8.8 
10.0 
11.4 
11.6 
12.8 
14.2 
14.2 



16.2 
17.5 
18.2 
20.0 



Greene. 



Years. 
7.0 
8.0 
8.0 
9.1 
11.0 
11.2 
12.0 
14.0 



14.5 
15.0 
17.0 
18.2 



Aver- 
age. 



Years. 
7.2 
8.6 
8.9 
10.3 
11.3 
12.2 
13.4 
14.1 



15.4 
16.1 
17.2 

18.4 



District townships. 



Wil- j South- 
liams- I ing- 
field. ton. 



Years. 

6.6 

8.4 

9.2 

10.4 

11.5 

12.6 

13.9 

15.5 



Years. 
7.1 
8.1 
9.3 
10.4 
12.3 
12.5 
13.5 
15.0 



Cnam- 
pion. 



3 ears. 
6.1 
7.5 
8.0 
10.3 
11.1 
12.7 
14.0 
14.6 



Aver- 
age. 



Fears. 
6.6 
8.0 
8.8 
10.4 
11.6 
12.6 
13.8 
15.0 



EFFECTIVE DIVISION OF THE SCHOOL TIME. 



Visits were made to each of the twenty-four district schools in the 
three townships and minute notes taken of one or more days' school 
work in each. This, supplemented by explanations by the teacher, 
furnished the basis for calculating a year's work in all of the grades 
at each particular school. The averages of the data from all schools 
represent fairly the work done in the average district school in the 
United States. Identical notes were taken and calculations made 
concerning the class work in the graded and high school courses of the 
consolidated schools, and in this manner statistics were obtained which 
made possible comparisons of the work and efficiency of the two types 
of schools and even to extend those comparisons to smaller details. 

Teachers in one-room district schools, with pupils in five, six, seven, 
or eight grades, can not apportion the school time so advantageously 

No. 232 



58 

as teachers in consolidated schools with one, two, or at most three 
grades, even though the latter may have many more pupils. 

In one-room schools, owing to smallness of classes, frequency of 
recitations, and variety of studies, the absence of even one or two 
pupils may for that day necessitate a complete change of programme, 
classes, and subjects. Combination of classes and alternation of 
studies are often resorted to in order to economize time and keep up 
with the assigned term's work. Frequently, pupils in the higher 
grades are called upon to assist in teaching. 

DIVISION OF SCHOOL TIME IN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS RATIONAL 
AND ADVANTAGEOUS TO PUPILS. 

The teacher's work relative to individual pupils is most effective 
and direct during the recitation period ; that is, during the time when 
the relation of pupil and teacher is close, individual, and reciprocal. 
This period should occupy the largest possible part in the pupil's 
school day. There is a limit to which the study period may be util- 
ized, and the time should not be too extended with children begin- 
ning to form the habit of study ; the attention soon flags and is easily 
drawn from the work by slight incidents. Through the teacher's 
skillful use of the recitation period the pupil is taught how to study. 
Each room of the consolidated school having 2, or at most 3 grades, 
it is much easier to divide a pupil's time into recitation and study 
periods in a manner most advantageous to him. There are few 
irregularities in attendance, and that also makes it possible to con- 
tinue class work without repetition or time-wasting interruptions. 
That there is a marked difference in the division of time of consoli- 
dated and district schools is shown in Table 20. 

Table 20. — Total recitation and study hours available to each pupil during the 
entire eight-year elementary course in a consolidated and m a district 
school. 





Consolidated school. 


District school. 


Distribution of time. 


Hours. 


Per cent of 

total school 

hours. 


Hours. 


Per cent of 

total school 

hours. 


Recitation 

Study 


2,872 
2,928 


49.5 
50.5 


1,061 
5,573 


15.9 
84.1 




5,800 


100.0 


6, 634 


100.0 







"These greatly condensed data were obtained from the three consolidated schools in 
Kinsman, Johnston, and Greene, and the twenty-four district schools in Williamsfield, 
Champion, and Southington townships, 1906. 

Each pupil during the eight elementary years in the district school 
had at his disposal a total of 6,634 hours ; that is, this amount of time 
was made available to each pupil by the teacher. In the consolidated 

No. 232 



59 

school it was 5,800 hours. The pupil attending the district school 
would have during - his school life — assuming regular attendance — 
834 hours more of school work than one in the consolidated school. 
The difference is explained in part by the fact that the school day of 
the consolidated school was shorter than that of the district schools. 
To enable the school wagons to return the children home at an early 
hour, the consolidated dismissed half an hour earlier than the district 
schools. 

But these are minor details ; the chief interest centers in the division 
of the school time into recitation and study hours. The manner in 
which a child may utilize the time allotted to him in the space of 
eight years of school attendance determines, in a large measure, the 
extent to which he is to be benefited. In the consolidated school the 
average pupil, according to the statistics tabulated above, had the 
benefit of 1,811 more hours of recitation than the district-school pupil, 
and this fact distinguishes the two types of school as fundamentally 
and radically different. These 1,811 hours additional class work and 
instruction, an increase of 171 per cent, not only enables the consoli- 
dated school to teach the common branches with greater thorough- 
ness, but to add agriculture and home economics and other studies 
not directly learned from books. 

The number of study hours each consolidated-school pupil had was 
2,928, while the district-school pupils had 5,573 — or 2,645 hours more, 
an excess which very few would be able to turn to beneficial use except 
under the direct guidance of the teacher. This disparity in the nature 
of the school work becomes more apparent expressed in percentages. 
The district pupil recited during 16 per cent of his time and spent 
84 per cent in study ; the consolidated-school pupil's time was almost 
evenly divided — 49.5 per cent recitation and 50.5 per cent study. The 
last-named pupils had more individual instruction, drill, and oppor- 
tunity to do work with thoroughness. The course of study of the 
district schools was admittedly crowded to the limit, the real reason, 
as shown, being not too great a variety of studies, but lack of time 
for instruction. 

DIVISION OF THE SCHOOL TIME AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE 

TEACHERS. 

The large aggregation of pupils in the consolidated school makes 
possible a certain degree of concentration and centralization of school 
work, and provides, as a general rule, more favorable conditions than 
are found in the district school. In the former there are fewer teach- 
ers ; an immense amount of duplication of work and effort is avoided 
by reducing the number of daily classes. Classes are more uniform 
in membership, and the numerous classes with only one pupil are 
done away with. The length of the recitations is much longer, 

No. 232 



60 

nearly double ; and, as a result, fewer classes are heard during the day. 
All these features of school and class organization of consolidated and 
district schools are grouped in comparative form in Table 21. 

Tari.r 21. — Average number of teacher*, number and size of classes, and length 
of recitations in the elementary grades of the schools of three consolidated 
and three district school townships in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, OJiio, 
in 1906. 



Consolida- 
ted-school 
townships. 



District- 
school 
townships. 



Teachers, elementary number. . 

Classes, daily do 

Pupils in largest class do 

Pupils in smallest class do 

Pupils in average class do 

Length of average recitation minutes.. 

Largest number classes daily single teacher. . 

Smallest number classes daily do 



3.0 
51.0 
23.0 

7.0 
14.3 
18.5 
19.6 
16.0 



8.0 

230. 

15.0 

1.0 

3.3 

10.9 

36.6 

23.0 



In Table 21 is also found an explanation of the large amount of 
time allotted for study in the district schools (Table 20). The larg- 
est number of classes heard daily in any one school in the district- 
school townships was nearly double that in the consolidated schools. 
These numerous classes of few pupils engage the teacher so con- 
stantly, that it is necessary to busy the rest of the pupils by assigning 
them study work. The large number of daily classes is a problem 
which every district-school teacher is struggling to overcome, but it 
is inseparably a part of the system and can not be altered except by 
consolidation. 

Table 22 summarizes the size and number of daily classes, from one 
pupil up, of each of three district-school townships. The totals are 
the number of recitations or classes called daily in each during the 
entire school year. 

Table 22. — Size and number of classes daily in three district-school townships 
of Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, Ohio, 1906. 



1 pupil ... 

2 pupils . . 

3 pupils . . 

4 pupils . . 

5 pupils .. 

6 pupils . . 

7 pupils .. 

8 pupils . . 

9 pupils . . 

10 pupils . 

11 pupils . 

12 pupils . 
15 pupils . 



Size of classes. 



Total 



No. 232 



Number of classes daily. 



Williams- 
field. 



Champion. 



Southing- 
ton. 



Average. 



61 

The existence of the conditions in district schools, such as are 
shown in Tables 22 and 23, have, of course, long been known to 
teachers and educators, but the presentation of totals for all the dis- 
trict schools of a township as a unit in comparison with the consoli- 
dated school of another township, is new. In no way can the benefit 
of the concentration derived from consolidation and the disadvan- 
tage of the scattering of forces into many one-room schools, dis- 
tributed over a territory of 25 or more square miles, be more forcibly 
illustrated. 

SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS. 

The consolidated school encourages permanency of residence of 
principal and teachers ; it attaches them to the school, begets loyalty 
and enthusiasm, and makes possible the formulation of long-time 
plans. The resident principal and teachers often take the leadership 
in social and literary activities, and, having become a part of the 
community, set an example in citizenship for all the children. 
Through contact with parents, as well as with children, they learn the 
character and home life of the latter quite as intimately as the teachers 
in the district schools, and much better than those in town or city 
schools, being enabled thereby to take cognizance of each pupil's per- 
sonal peculiarities and to make use of that knowledge in teaching. 

Frequent change of teachers reacts unfavorably upon pupils, owing 
to changes of methods of instruction and changes in discipline. The 
different personal influence of the new teachers is likely also to affect 
the pupil's progress and interest in school work. 

It is seldom that a community, once it has a consolidated school, 
rests content, making no further betterments. The same broad edu- 
cational policy which originally led to consolidation generally con- 
tinues to dominate school affairs and results in a progressive raising 
of standards in all departments. Hence, it is an almost invariable 
rule that consolidated schools demand of teachers higher qualifica- 
tions and professional ability than do district schools. Consolidated 
schools attract the capable rural teachers; the positions are sought 
after and many teachers make special efforts to prepare for them. 
In cases even where in a newly consolidated school some of the same 
teachers are engaged who taught in the original district schools, a 
perceptible improvement of the professional standard should be 
demonstrable, because in reducing the number of schools and 
teachers all the better teachers would naturally be retained. 

The investigations in the northeastern Ohio townships, in Trum- 
bull and Ashtabula counties, demonstrate clearly the changed condi- 
tions of supervision and teachers' qualifications in consolidated as 
compared with district school townships. It is true that in wealthier 

No. 232 



62 

sections of the country there are consolidated schools which in point 
of equipment and teachers surpass the Ohio consolidated schools 
cited ; on the other hand, in other less favored sections of the country, 
district schools could probably be found which would fall greatly 
below the Ohio district schools. However, the data from these Ohio 
schools represent fair averages and reflect general conditions quite 
accurately. Of the 24 teachers employed in the three district-school 
townships, 1 was a graduate of a normal school, 17 of high schools, 

2 of academies, 1 of a district school, and 3 were professional teachers, 
of twelve, twenty, and thirty-four years' experience — previous train- 
ing not stated. 

The three consolidated-school townships employed 3 principals, 

3 high school assistants, and 9 elementary school teachers, a total 
of 15. The principals were graduates from colleges and normal 
schools; one had specially prepared to teach general science. Of 
the assistants and teachers, 5 were either college graduates or had 
two or three years of college work to their credit ; 2 were graduates 
from normal schools, 2 from academies, and 2 from high schools; 
of the 15 had normal school training. 

Six teachers, out of the 24 in the three district-school townships, 
were teaching either their first or second year. Two years' experience 
was the least any teacher in the consolidated schools had to her credit. 
The three principals had respectively two, three, and five years' 
experience in school supervision. 

The daily visits of the principal to the class rooms are vastly more 
effective and helpful to the teacher than the one or two brief visits 
a year which the district school teacher receives from the county 
superintendent. The maintenance of discipline largely devolves upon 
the principal, relieving the teacher of much responsibility and vexa- 
tion. The county superintendent can make his work more effective 
by dividing his time among 16 to 25 consolidated schools in the 
county instead of 100 or 150 district schools. It is impossible to 
visit more than casually so large a number during the eight or nine 
months of the school year. 

The desire to attain higher standards and better preparation of 
teachers for rural schools has caused many States to enact teachers' 
minimum-wage laws. Despite these efforts, the general average of 
district-school teachers' qualifications has not been appreciably 
raised, for the reason that there is a constant influx of new and un- 
tried teachers, who almost invariably obtain their first experience 
in the one-room district schools. Teaching in district schools is com- 
monly regarded as a temporary employment, and teachers are con- 
stantly leaving it for city schools and for business and industrial 
employment and home making. The consolidated school makes pos- 
sible the professional male teacher for the country school. 

No. 232 



63 

ORGANIZATION OF A COUNTY SYSTEM OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS 
AND PRACTICABILITY OF SUCH A SYSTEM. 

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AS THE LOGICAL CENTER OF 
COUNTRY LIFE ACTIVITIES. 

That most rural communities are at present lacking in central 
rallying points is common knowledge. On the other hand, there is 
abundant evidence that consolidated schools are beginning to fill 
that need in country life. 

The consolidated school provides in a community a permanent 
educational and intellectual center and, incidentally, may determine 
the future location of permanent social and, possibly, ecomonic cen- 
ters. Hence a county system of such schools, properly directed, tends 
to conserve and unify country life as does no other agency. 

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL NOT INFLUENCED BY CHANGES OF 

POPULATION. 

The district schoolhouse follows the flow of population, hence 
in part its failure to serve as a permanent social or educational cen- 
ter of a rural community. This fact deserves earnest consideration, 
as under present conditions about 35 per cent of the farms of the 
country are operated by tenants. These represent largely a shifting 
population which lacks the opportunity to identify itself closely 
with local institutions and usages. In some States where the rules 
of the state school board, or of the boards of health, do not prescribe 
the exact form and cost of buildings, it is not unusual to abandon a 
one-room school and, by a majority vote, move the house bodily to 
a more convenient place, or rent a conveniently located farmhouse, 
or erect a new schoolhouse. 

The shifting of population to new centers seriously affects the 
attendance of district schools, and necessitates in some cases not only 
the abandonment of good and almost new school buildings, but may 
enforce subdivision of present districts and the erection of new 
schoolhouses in new centers of population. The process of subdivi- 
sion of' districts is still steadily going on in many States. That this 
in some instances must lead to small, weak, poorly attended district 
schools scarcely requires demonstration. 

The conditions which lead to the decline of the district school fore- 
shadow consolidation in many sections of the country, however much 
local sentiment may at present oppose it. The economic and social 
causes which are still active in the readjustment of the proportion of 
rural to urban population, and the size of the average family are 
problems which enter the rural school question and make consolida- 
tion a live issue. 

No. 232 



64 

As the average consolidated school gathers its attendance from 
upward of 100 families, rarely less, inhabiting an area of 20 or more 
square miles, the ordinary changes of residence of the school patrons 
within that territory do not greatly affect the total attendance at the 
school. 

Even a decrease of population in the community will result only 
in a proportionate decrease in school attendance, but change nothing 
in the identity of the school. Attendance reaches stable conditions. 
By reason of its remarkable flexibility this type of school is successful 
under the adverse conditions of sparsity of population; as, for in- 
stance, in the newly settled and thinly populated sections of North 
Dakota, where the school population averages as low as 1.7 per square 
mile, or in the older but also thinly settled sections in Florida, where 
the school population is as low as 1.9 per square mile; and it is 
equally a success in the densely populated sections of Vermont, Maine, 
and Massachusetts, where in rural districts the school population is 
sometimes 25 or more per square mile. 

In order to work out methods of investigating rural-school prob- 
lems, study the physical and financial adjustments of district forma- 
tion, and determine to what extent the county system of consolidated 
schools may be practicable under the great variety of conditions 
existing in the different sections of this extensive country, a plan 
of tentatively redistricting several agricultural counties in different 
States suggested itself. In the selection of these counties care was 
taken to choose a diversity of topographical, soil, agricultural, and 
financial conditions. In each case extended and minute inspection 
of all the conditions was made directly on the ground, and many of 
the projected school- wagon routes were driven over; hence the plans 
may be accepted as representing definite and practicable working 
plans. 

With the cooperation of the school officials of Ada and Canyon 
counties, Idaho, Douglas and Olmsted counties, Minnesota, and Fair- 
fax county, Virginia, tentative working plans were prepared for re- 
districting the respective counties and theoretically converting their 
present district school system into a county system of consolidated 
schools. As the work progressed, the conditions which the tentative 
system is devised to remedy or displace also received attention and 
the extent was noted to which consolidated schools would offer im- 
provements. For, clearly, in bidding for public favor the consoli- 
dated schools must be prepared to assume that position. Such a 
scheme of districting a county, State, or part of a State into con- 
solidated school districts provides the educational authorities with 
a definite working plan. After the consolidation centers have once 
been decided upon, the building up of the system may be gradual 
until the structure of a county or state system shall have been corn- 
No. 232 



65 

pleted. Where circumstances do not favor consolidation at one 
stroke, the formation of union schools will serve well as a prelim- 
inary step to the larger undertaking. 

In some States the established administrative unit is the district; 
in others the township or county. These cases will be treated sepa- 
rately at some length, and the counties mentioned used for illustra- 
tions. Instances will also be introduced of several counties where 
county systems of consolidation have been partially or almost wholly 
completed and are in actual operation. 

CONSOLIDATION IN STATES WHERE THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL DIS- 
TRICT IS THE ADMINISTRATIVE SCHOOL UNIT. 

In States where the one-room school district is the administrative 
school unit, lack of coordination and cooperation between districts is 
one of the greatest hindrances to consolidation. Each school district 
is administered by a body of local officials, who have no organic 
connection or point of contact with the officials of the 50 to 150 
other school units or districts in the county. Moreover, a proposi- 
tion to consolidate must be submitted to a separate vote in each of 
the 50 to 150 unrelated school districts. Consolidation in those 
States, therefore, depends not merely upon the attitude of the pa- 
trons of each individual district toward the new system, but also 
upon the temper and attitude of the districts toward one another. 
Under such circumstances, consolidation can be accomplished only 
with great difficulty, and frequently results only in the union of the 
favorably inclined districts, formed less with a view to permanent 
future needs than to serve and satisfy present demands. As a rule, the 
few consolidated districts formed on this plan are too small ; the Lew- 
iston and John Swaney schools may be cited as examples (see pages 85 
and 86). A further disadvantage of this manner of district merging 
is that it may lead to the organization of more consolidated schools 
in a county than are actually required — a danger to be guarded 
against with greater care than in the case of district schools. Since 
the former draw upon a more extensive area, enroll more pupils, 
and represent a larger outlay for building and equipment than do the 
latter, a consolidated school unwisely located may easily encroach 
upon the field of neighboring ones and thereby become a source of 
permanent irritation or annoyance in county school affairs. 

Some of the States west, northwest, and southwest have counties, 
parts of which have but recently been organized or are soon to be 
organized into school districts. These afford excellent opportunities 
for establishing consolidated schools on the county-system plan from 
the beginning. In many of these progressive western communities, 
consolidation is meeting with marked success and enthusiastic popu- 
lar support, in particular in several communities in Idaho which at 
54634°— Bull. 232—10 5 



66 

the time of settlement have organized large consolidated districts of 
30 to 36 square miles. It seems certain that those irrigated, 
prospectively densely populated, and intensively cultivated sec- 
tions, will soon support a system of schools adapted to country life of 
very high standard. 




DISTRICT SCHOOL^. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

DISTRICT BOUNDARY- 
ELECTRIC ROAD 

STEAM ROAD 

TOWN 



D 



Fig. 16.— Map of Ada County, Idaho, showing boundaries of the school districts and the 
location of rural district schools and high schools, 1908. 

Number of one-room rural schools (ungraded) 24 

Number of two-room rural schools 5 

Number of three-room rural schools 1 

Number of pupils enrolled in 1907, one, two, and three room rural schools 4, 662 

The consolidated school in Twin Falls, Idaho (page 25) gives a 
very fair idea of the results of the educational efforts of one of those 
newly settled communities. There are five other schools of like 
character in the State, 

No, 232 



67 

As before mentioned, Ada and Canyon counties, Idaho, were se- 
lected for the purpose of studying to what extent the county system 
of consolidation is adapted to the local conditions peculiar to irri- 
gated lands. The older and irrigated portions of both counties are 
at present organized into school districts averaging about 7 square 




LEGEND 
HIGH SCHOOL D 

PROPOSED CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL ft 

CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT BOUNDARY. 

ELECTRIC ROAD 

STEAM ROAD ,,, 

TOWN. , wfiMk 

Fig. 17. — Map of Ada County, Idaho, illustrating a tentative plan of consolidation. Num- 
bers before " G." and " H. S." indicate probable enrolment of pupils in elementary and 
high school courses, respectively. Roman numerals are used to designate the proposed 
consolidated school districts. 

miles in area and are maintaining an excellent system of rural schools 
and several high schools ; other portions, practically " desert " land, 
are as yet unorganized. Considerable tracts of irrigable agricultural 
lands in both counties have been thrown open for settlement by the 
United States Reclamation Service and by a number of private cor- 
porations. Redistricting plans were made for both counties provid- 

No. 232 



68 

ing them with a tentative plan of consolidation — a plan which, if 
adopted, may hereafter be modified in minor details, but whose gen- 
eral adaptability to the local conditons is attested by collaborating 
residents and county officials. 

The agricultural and inhabited sections of these counties are topo- 
graphically a series of levels at different altitudes — the extensive and 
level bottom lands, and at some distance above them plateaus called 
bench lands, from which the surface again rises gently to high un- 
irrigable lands above the level of the water supply. The bluffs bor- 
dering the bench lands and the canyon-like banks of the river con- 
stitute to some extent natural divisions and boundaries of the present 
school districts, and in the larger consolidated districts would be a 
yet more important factor. 

These high-priced, irrigated lands are by nature only suited to, 
and by human design intended for, intensive, specialized agriculture. 
A system of consolidated schools once established here would natur- 
ally evolve into consolidated farm schools, with vocational high- 
school courses for rural children. On the map showing the tentative 
plans of consolidation of these counties (fig. 17), several consolidated 
schools have been suggested for districts not at present settled. This 
anticipation of settlement was necessary in order to render the idea of 
county consolidation complete. 

PROJECTED CONSOLIDATION IN ADA COUNTY, IDAHO. 

Location, agricultural section of State; area of county, 1,179 square 
miles. Population in 1900, 10,019 — composed of natives from nearly 
all States of the Union and a small proportion of foreign-born immi- 
grants. Agriculture, confined to high-priced irrigated land, is inten- 
sive and diversified. Fruit, of which a great variety is produced, is 
the leading industry. Alfalfa, three and often four crops being cut 
annually, is extensively cultivated. Cereals, mostly oats, cover con- 
siderable areas. Sugar beets are a leading money crop. The live- 
stock interests on the irrigated lands are increasing, many pure-breed 
herds being owned. Dairying is beginning to receive attention. 

This project contemplates thirteen consolidated schools, one of 
which is a joint school with Canj^on County. In six of the districts, 
namely, III, IV, V, VI, IX, and XXII, immediate consolidation 
would be practicable, and one of the first results would be that a large 
number of eighth-grade graduates would continue in the high-school 
courses of the consolidated schools, and the number of rural pupils 
attending high schools would probably rise to 180. At present the 
city high schools, on which the rural population is dependent for 
secondary education, enroll 56 rural pupils, or only 1 per cent of the 
rural school population. The electric road could be advantageously 
used for the conveyance of numbers of pupils to school. 

No. 232 



A district with its center at Kuna was organized in the fail of 1908 
and is almost identical with the consolidated district outlined on the 
map. At present school is being conducted in a tent ; later it will be 
transferred to a rented building, to remain there until increase of 
population and taxable wealth will make possible the erection of a 
consolidated school building. 




LEGEND 
CIS TB1C T SCHOOL 

T BOi/tiDARr 

STEAM (f 



Fig. 18. — Map of Canyon County, Idaho, showing the boundaries of the common-school 
districts and location of district and high schools. 

Number of one-room schoolhouses (ungraded) 34 

Number of two-room schoolhouses 9 

PROJECTED CONSOLIDATION IN CANYON COUNTY, IDAHO. 

Area of county, 1,379 square miles. Population in 1907, 6,851. 

Canyon County joins Ada County on the west, and conditions of 
topography, agriculture, and population are similar. The rural 
schools, nearly all housed in neat and substantial buildings, are good. 

There are 8 high schools in the county, which is indicative of a 
strong educational sentiment. In this project most of these have 

No. 232 



70 



been retained as consolidation centers, and several additional centers 
suggested. The 43 district schools are supplanted by 22 consolidated 
schools, including 1 joint consolidated school. The independent dis- 
tricts of the towns of Nampa, Caldwell, Fayette, and Emmet have 
been left intact. 




L£G£*D 

1 SCHOOL 

CONSOLIDATE QlSTRICT 

CLCCTRIC ROAD 

ST£AM ROAD 



Fig. l'O. — Map of Canyon County, Idaho, illustrating a tentative plan of consolidation. 

Numbers before " G." and " H. S." give probable enrolment in elementary and high- 
school courses, respectively. Roman numerals are used to designate the consolidated- 
school districts. 

With the completion of the extensive irrigation projects, the oc- 
cupancy of the lands, formation of new school districts, and erec- 
tion of new schoolhouses will probably proceed very rapidly. The 
tentative plans submitted in figure 19 suggest educational possibil- 
ities, which the rapidly increasing population may readily turn to 
a reality. 

The probable enrolment in elementary and high-school courses of 
the projected consolidated schools is indicated by numbers before 
" G," and " H. S.," respectively. These numbers are estimates and are 

No. 232 



71 

based on the present district-school enrolment. Where the present 
number of pupils is too small to justify a high-school course, only an 
elementary-grade enrolment is given, but increase of population may 
at some later time make possible a high-school course. 

There seem always to be difficulties in the way of bringing 
together for voluntary action from six to nine districts necessary 
to form a large consolidated school district. Imagined diversity of 
interests, difference of opinions, and a certain degree of local pride 
stand much in the way of extensive consolidation. The first State to 
recognize this difficulty was Minnesota, which by enactment of an 
option law has opened the way for the idea of a county system of con- 
solidated rural schools. The law is simple in its provisions and makes 
possible in any county a gradual change from the district-school 
system to a county sj^stem of consolidated schools. The law has the 
advantage that option laws generally have in that it affords other 
counties in the State the opportunity to observe the workings of the 
plan. This law can ba found in the " General laws of the State of 
Minnesota " and is entitled "An act to provide for an optional plan 
for counties to consolidate rural schools, to provide for the organiza- 
tion and government of consolidated rural schools, and to provide for 
the transportation of rural pupils at public expense." 

This law provides that the board of county commissioners may, 
and upon petition of 25 per cent of the resident freeholders living 
on farms shall, organize a commission consisting of 7 members, called 
a consolidation commission. This commission is empowered to redis- 
trict the county into consolidated school districts, and to publish a 
map showing proposed boundaries of the districts and location of 
schoolhouses. a This plan is submitted for acceptance or rejection 
by vote. In case of acceptance, the electors of the county, after due 
advertisement, meet for the election of a board of school trustees. 
This board has power to dispose of old school property, acquire new 
property, erect needed buildings, etc. Each consolidated district is 
given a name and number. For purposes of maintenance and support 
consolidated rural schools are classed as state graded schools. 

Olmsted County, Minn., was selected by the writer for tentative 
redisricting into consolidated districts in such manner as might be 
done under the county-option law, and the suggested plan is shown in 
figure 20. 

PROJECTED CONSOLIDATION IN OLMSTED COUNTY, MINN. 

Area, 644 square miles; population in 1905, 22,409; number of rural 
district schools, 139 ; graded schools, 3. 

Olmsted County is situated in probably the most fertile section of 
southeastern Minnesota. Farming is diversified. Grain is the prin- 

a The law seems to need amendment, so that each designated district may 
choose its own time for consolidation. 
No. 232 



72 

cipal crop. The barley crop is in the lead as to acreage ; oat:-; is second 
in importance. Much attention is paid to sheep feeding, and dairy- 
ing is developing. Price of farm land (1908) ranges between $35 
and $75, averaging about $45 per acre. 

The county is rolling, but hilly or broken along water courses. The 
roads are chiefly dirt roads, well graded and ditched. With state 




Fig. 20. — Map of Olmsted County, Minn., illustrating a tentative plan of consolidation. 

The heavy lines are the boundaries of the proposed consolidated districts. The light 
lines are township lines. The location of the proposed consolidated school buildings is 
shown by the conventional symbol, and to assist in comparisons the locations of the pres- 
ent district, graded, and high schools are also indicated. The numbers before " G." and 
" H. S." denote probable enrolment in grades and high school, respectively, in the pro- 
posed consolidated schools. 

Under this project, the present 142 graded and district schools would be replaced by 21 
strong, well-attended consolidated schools. It will be noted that for Districts XII and XX, 
Rochester and Stewartsville, respectively, consolidated schools at a distance from town are 
suggested for the rural pupils. With the exception of these two schools all others in the 
county are replaced by consolidated schools. The Roman numerals apply to the number 
of the proposed districts. 

aid portions have been macadamized. Conveyance of pupils in school 
wagons would be entirely practicable in all parts of the county. A 
union school has been in operation for several years at Pleasant 
Grove; it is, without question, an excellent school. Hence, consoli- 
dation under the county-option law would be simply a matter of 
extending a plan which has already proved practicable. 

No. 232 



73 

Consolidation, as a county system, would prove more advantageous 
than the district system in Olmsted County for reasons briefly stated 
as follows : 

1. Under this project all the schools in the county would be con- 
solidated and upward of 3,500 pupils, including town, village, and 
rural pupils, would have access to them. Approximately 700 pupils, 
nearly all rural, would be enrolled in high-school classes, and would 
eventually have the advantage of several years of vocational train- 
ing, that is, work in agriculture, horticulture, dairying, and home 
economics. 

2. Sixty-six per cent of the pupils enrolled in the rural common 
schools attend, compared with a probable attendance in the projected 
consolidated schools of 78.5 per cent (predicated on attendance at the 
consolidated schools in Trumbull County, Ohio). 

3. The enrolment for a number of years in the rural common 
schools of the county shows a decided increase in three districts only. 
In all others the enrolment was characterized by the fluctuations 
common to this type of school. 

4. In each of 18 districts — 13.5 per cent of the total districts in the 
county— the enrolment in 1907 was 10 pupils or less; the existence of 
several of these is threatened and dissolution seems only a question of 
time. Low enrolment is a general characteristic of the Olmsted 
County rural schools. The average enrolment in one-third of the 
schools is 13.8 pupils or less, and in one-fifth of them 12 pupils or 
less. In 1907 the average for the rural schools of the entire county 
was 20.2 pupils. 

5. Low enrolment is suggestive of an unnecessary number of school 
houses. In Olmsted County each rural school has on an average a 
contributory area of 4.7 square miles, and the tendency is to build ad- 
ditional ones. A new district was organized in 1907 and others are 
contemplated. The enrolment for a period of sixteen consecutive 
years in seven of the schools with an enrolment in 1907 of 10 pupils 
and less is shown in Table 23. To those who read between the lines 
this table epitomizes the history of the respective districts. 

Olmsted County is credited with being the first county in Minne- 
sota to take up and develop industrial contest work and corn clubs 
for boys and girls. Under the leadership of Superintendent George 
B. Howard the county has attained an advanced position in this form 
of educational work. There is scarcely any doubt that through the 
agency of a county system of consolidated schools this work cdtild be 
rendered much more inspirational and educational and could be 
brought to a larger number of children. 

No. 232 



74 

Table 28. — Enrolment for sixteen years in seven rural district schools in Olmsted 

County, Minn. 



Year. 


Pupils in district — 


No. 9. 


No. 11. 


No. 18. 


No. 32. 


No. 45. 


No.101. 


No. 123. 


1892 


15 
14 
18 
17 
14 
20 
19 
( 6 ) 
20 
15 
14 

n 

9 
4 
4 
3 


5 

4 

9 

11 

26 

11 

9 

( 6 ) 

6 

9 
13 
13 

6 
29 

7 
10 


8 
9 
13 
15 
10 
7 
11 
C) 
13 
15 
14 
10 
11 
4 
6 
8 


18 
17 
20 
16 
18 
18 
36 

43 
32 
28 
26 
30 
18 
13 
9 


6 
10 

7 

(a) 

5 

8 
19 

m 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 
8 

(a) 
6 
6 
7 


5 

10 
7 
8 
8 
6 
8 
I 6 ) 
6 
6 
8 
9 
4 
5 
5 
9 


7 


1893 


10 


1894 


9 


1895 


10 


1896 


11 


1897 


11 


1898 


10 


1899 


( b ) 
10 


1900 


1901 


5 


1902 


(a) 


1903 


1904 


(a) 
3 


1905 


1906 


3 


1907 


2 







No school. 



b Record lost. 



Of the 18 district schools with enrolment of 10 or less, statistics from 7 were tabulated 
to illustrate decline and fluctuations in enrolment. As the average daily attendance at 
district schools ranges between 65 and 70 per cent of the enrolment, the actual daily 
attendance at these schools must have fallen very low. 

District school No. 9 shows steady decline since 1900, although current expenses con- 
tinued the same ; in 1908 the cost of schooling per pupil was $189.67. (See Table 8, p. 39.) 

In district school No. 11 there is an increase of enrolment through five years, then a 
fluctuating decline. 

In district schools Nos. 18 and 123 the enrolment was low throughout the entire period 
of sixteen years. 

District school No. 32 maintained a good enrolment from 1892 to 1904, then fell off 
very rapidly. 

District school No. 45, which could not possibly possess either merit or influence, was 
maintained by the patrons with heroic persistence. During sixteen years the patrons of 
the district discontinued the school five times and as many times resumed the hopeless 
task of keeping school with few children. 

One fact is clearly apparent : The continuance of such small districts during sixteen 
years was educationally and financially unsatisfactory and represents a continued outlay 
without adequate educational returns, in a very well-to-do community living on produc- 
tive lands. 



CONSOLIDATION IN STATES WHEEE THE COUNTY OR TOWNSHIP 
IS THE ADMINISTRATIVE SCHOOL UNIT. 

Consolidation is more easily effected and the method of procedure 
greatly simplified in States where school affairs are administered by 
county boards, or even by township boards or township trustees. 
The initiative in the movement for consolidating districts may be 
taken by such a governing body, which submits the proposition to the 
the electorate of a township or larger district for acceptance or re- 
jection by vote. This mode' of procedure is much more direct than 
that in which the individual districts are relied upon for action, as is 
evidenced by the fact that consolidation has made most progress in 
States where the schools are under either county or township admin- 
istration. In States where the " town " or township is the adminis- 
trative school unit, consolidation is taken up by each township inde- 

No, 232 



75 

pendently until it embraces the entire county. Frequently there are 
in portions of States certain geographical and topographical ob- 
stacles which make a comprehensive county system of consolidation 
by townships impracticable. In such cases it is advisable and advan- 
tageous to provide a plan based upon the county as a unit, even where 
there is no immediate prospect of carrying out the plan in its entirety. 

The map, figure 5, page 18, illustrates the progress of consolidation 
by townships in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, Ohio. The con- 
solidated schools are, with some exceptions, 5 miles apart and, as may 
be seen, are rapidly approaching a complete county system. It is 
needless to state that the consolidated school is the only school in each 
township, the district or one-room schools being abolished. 

In these counties, where the township is the administrative, civic, 
and school unit, and where there is no county superintendent of schools 
or similar functionary, the consolidated school districts are contermi- 
nous with the townships. 

Each square on the map represents a township about 5 miles square, 
or about 25 square miles, and symbols denote the schools and kinds 
of schools; blank spaces represent townships still maintaining dis- 
trict schools. Consolidation has been effected in 41 per cent of the 
townships of these counties. Special legislation was enacted to per- 
mit the organization of the first schools, and all but four have been 
organized and built since 1901. 

Each of the consolidated schools, in 1908, had a two, three, or four 
years' high-school course, and in Trumbull County 282 farm boys 
and girls attended these courses. The district-school townships paid 
tuition for 234 rural pupils at consolidated and other high schools. 
Briefly, the high-school attendance from consolidated school town- 
ships in Trumbull County averaged 31 pupils per township and from 
district-school townships, 14.6 pupils per township. 

As examples of fairly complete county consolidation of schools are 
found in several States, much valuable information as to the funda- 
mental principles of district formation may be gleaned from a study 
of the counties where such extensive progress has been made. Nu- 
merous counties are demonstrating that district schools may be com- 
pletely supplanted by consolidated schools without the slightest inter- 
ruption in education — after eight years all that remains of the district 
school is a memory. 

CONSOLIDATION IN DUVAL COUNTY, FLA. 

Supt. George P. Glenn, Jacksonville, Fla., who, in the capacity of 
county superintendent or secretary of the board of education, has 
been at the head of Duval County school affairs during the past 

No. 232 



76 

eighteen years, has succeeded in consolidating all the district schools 
of that county, with the exception of those of one district. Of the 
consolidated schools in operation, 10 are graded and 2 typical con- 
solidated schools. (See map, fig. 21.) 

Some of the consolidated districts are quite large, a number of the 
children walk some distance to meet the school wagon; in this way 
children from considerable areas can be brought together in this mild 
climate. 



l£CCHD 
UNION SCHOOL 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

BOUNDARY OF CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT. 

LAUNCH ROUTE , , 

STEAM R0AO. 




Fig. 21. — Map showing consolidated districts and location of consolidated schoolhouses in 

Duval County, Fla., 1908. 
Area of county, 884 square miles. The consolidated schools are indicated by the con- 
ventional symbol, location of future consolidated school by a circle. Two launches convey 
children to a school at New Britain. 

The generally level conformation of the land is favorable to trans- 
portation. Soil sandy, loose in places, drains well, and is solid where 
there is an admixture of clay. 

Improved farm land (in 1908) ranged, according to location, etc., 
from $30 to $100 and upward per acre ; the average is probably near 
$40, as there is considerable low and undrained land. 

The rural schools of 72 per cent of the entire area of the county are 
consolidated. Twenty-nine school wagons, owned by the county, con- 
vey the rural pupils to school daily. 

No. 232 



77 

The intended location of the consolidated schoolhouse in the only 
district in the county whose schools remain to be consolidated (St. 
Joseph's), is indicated on the map by a circle. 

Superintendent Glenn spends much time in personal work among 
his teachers, and has also instituted a regime of visits to parents very 
beneficial to the school interests of the county. 

CONSOLIDATION IN DELAWARE COUNTY, IND. 

In Indiana, as in Ohio, the township is the school unit. Map, 
figure 25, shows the extent and progress, by townships, of consolida- 
tion in Delaware County. Incidentally, the map shows the unusual 
facilities enjoj^ed by some communities for transportation by electric 
interurban roads. 

In only four townships are the consolidated school buildings 
located at the geographical center. In the three northeastern town- 
ships the river and rough contour along the river interfered with 
the formation of properly balanced districts and necessitated the 
location of two consolidated schoolhouses in one township, only 3| 
miles apart. 

The nearly equal proportion of district and consolidated school 
area in Delaware County affords an excellent opportunity for com- 
paring the attendance at the two types of schools. Comparisons on 
this larger scale are more striking than those by townships or by 
individual schools and reveal more truly the magnitude of the 
problems involved. In this county, under uniform conditions of soil, 
agriculture, roads, and population, it was found that, exclusive of 
the city of Muncie, the total enrolment in the district-school area 
(unshaded in fig. 22) was 3,775 pupils; the average daily attendance 
2,769, or 73 per cent of the enrolment. The number enrolled in the 
consolidated-school area was 1.427; average daily attendance 1,226, 
or 85.9 per cent of enrolment. 

If the district-school part of the county had the rate of attendance 
maintained by the consolidated-school part — 85.9 per cent — 478 more 
children would be attending school in that county than at present. 
Applying the rate of school attendance in the district-school part of 
the county to the schools of the entire county, and, furthermore, 
applying the rate of attendance in the consolidated-school part of the 
county to the schools of the entire county, it will be found that 670 
more pupils would attend school with the county all consolidated than 
with the county all subclistricted. 

The influence of the consolidated school in a community certainly 
is profound, reaching many more homes and prospective home- 
makers and fitting many more workers for their life work on the 
farm. Even of those who follow the call cityward, a larger number 
go thither better prepared to take up their life work there. 

No. 232 



78 

These figures, enlarged to a state system — such as Indiana seems 
to be intent upon perfecting — suggest wonderful possibilities in 
country-life education. 




LEGEND 

ONE ROOM DISTRICT SCHOOL 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

BOUNDARY OF CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT-- 

STEAM ROAD- __ r 

ELECTRIC ROAD 

TOWN 



■m 



Fig. 22. — Map showing extent of school consolidation in Delaware County, Ind., 1908. 

Area of county, 399 square miles. The fine lines are section lines; from which it may 
be seen that the area of some townships is 30 and of others 35 or 36 square miles. Rural 
school consolidation extends over 47.6 per cent of the area of the county. Fifty-three 
district schools have been abandoned in this county. Sixty-seven school wagons and 
several interurban lines daily transport about 1,300 pupils to consolidated schools. The 
county expended for conveyance $18,244 in 1907-8. After belonging to the consolidated 
school one year, one district in Salem Township withdrew and reopened its district school. 
But after one year's retrial of the old plan, the patrons, convinced that the consolidated 
school was the better, abandoned the district school permanently, sold the scboolhouse, and 
returned to the consolidated school. 
No. 232 



79 



CONSOLIDATION IN UNION TOWNSHIP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, IND. 

This township is as large as three or four ordinary ones but too 
small to be organized as a county. The map, figure 23, shows the 




NEW MARKET SCH., 

DISTRICT SCHOOL 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

BOUNDARY OF ONE ROOM SCHOOL DISTRICT, 



BOUNDARY OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT, 

ELECTRIC ROAD 

STEAM ROAD-- 



Fiu. 23. — Map of Union Township, Montgomery County, Ind., 1908. 

Area of township, 110 square miles. Valuation, $4,405,670. Number of pupils enrolled 
in public schools, 1,547. Location, the fertile section of west central Indiana. Craw- 
fordsville, the county seat. Land gently rolling, somewhat broken along the water 
courses; soil black and productive; average value of farming land (1908), $100 per acre. 
Agriculture is diversified ; products chiefly grain, hogs, and draft horses. The roads, 
nearly all graveled, are well taken care of. Seventy-four per cent of the area is consoli- 
dated. Five hundred and thirty-one children are conveyed to school daily in 31 school 
wagons. Eleven subdistrict schools remain unconsolidated. These are housed in excel- 
lent buildings ; their eventual abandonment and consolidation seems to be a matter of time 
and opportunity. The district schools, it will be noted, are located mostly along the water 
courses, where difficult roads interpose obstacles to convenient school-wagon routes. 
No. 232 



80 

progress of consolidation under two successive township trustees, the 
officials in charge of the administration of rural school affairs in that 
State. Here purpose and business sagacity have entered school affairs 
and the result is a unified plan, neither weighted down with dupli- 
cation of school expenditures nor lacking in the essentials of service 
and of convenience of access. 

FACTORS IN REDISTRICTING COUNTIES INTO CONSOLIDATED 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

In the foregoing pages two points have been strongly emphasized — 
the county as the rural school unit and systematic redisricting of the 
county for purposes of consolidation and location of country-life cen- 
ters. In practice, systematic redistricting usually has been ignored, 
and consolidation, though markedly successful, has in most States 
proceeded without a county plan. 

As a fundamental necessity to the success of redistricting counties, 
the various factors entering into it will next receive attention. It is 
neither desirable nor possible to assign to those factors a relative order 
of importance, as they will vary in different communities or districts ; 
each county is a distinct individual problem, requiring to be dealt with 
separately as local conditions prescribe. 

The factors recognized as influential are: (1) Population, (2) land 
values and tax-unit areas, (3) topography, (4) roads. These will be 
discussed under their respective headings. 

POPULATION. 

The consolidated school has demonstrated its effectiveness as an 
educational institution ; it is now, with every prospect of success, as- 
suming the additional task of unifying rural educational and social 
features and thereby establishing its place in America as a country- 
life institution, capable of restoring the interrupted social and neigh- 
borhood activities of the days before the glory of the district school, 
as our fathers knew it, had departed. 

School laws ordinarily do not recognize these sociological factors, 
yet they are inseparably a part of the country school. A rural school 
system which does not embrace in its scope the farm, home, and 
family, falls far short of filling its proper place in the nation. 
Viewed in this light, the subject of consolidated district formation 
is of deep significance. 

The population area should include the largest practicable number 
of families or patrons, so that all cooperative, social, or other enter- 
prises which exist or will eventually grow up may have the support 
of ample numbers. Hence, the boundaries of the consolidated dis- 
tricts should embrace the largest areas in which transportation will be 

No, 232 



81 

practicable. Where the area exceeds 25 square miles it is important 
to equalize the length of the school-wagon routes as much as possible. 
This can best be accomplished by placing the schoolhouse at or near 
the geographical center of the district or township. If this center 
be a large town or city 7 it is not usually advisable to consolidate 
with the urban schools. It is preferable to locate the consolidated 
school building a sufficient distance out of town to give it a proper 
rural setting, both for country children and for city pupils who 
desire to enter country life. Comparative isolation, freedom, and 
wholesome surroundings have largely contributed to the success and 
popularity of the district school, and it is certainly desirable to pre- 
serve those invaluable features intact, wherever possible, and to 
maintain the integrity of the consolidated school as a rural school in 
the open country. 

On the other hand, the location of the school in, or better, near a 
small town or village, if this happens to be the center of the district, 
always proves socially and commercially advantageous to the village 
and convenient for the farming community. 

In States where the township is the school unit, as in Ohio, the 
existence of a " special " or " independent school district " in a town 
or village within the township frequently interferes with and pre- 
cludes the possibility of consolidation of the schools in the remainder 
of the township ; whereas, a district including an entire township, and 
having a small rural village in the center, would support a strong 
consolidated school and have ample funds for conducting a better 
school than either the " special district " or the outside district alone. 

LAND VALUES, TAX-UNIT AREAS. 

It is essential that the districts, after combining to form a consoli- 
dated district, should have a revenue sufficient to conduct their school 
properly. Hence, fully as important to the success of consolidation as 
either roads or topography is the wealth of the community. The area 
which forms the tax-producing unit should be sufficiently extensive 
to produce ample revenue for properly conducting the school without 
placing a burden upon the community, or checking the growth of 
other public improvements depending upon taxation for their support. 

The general tendency is to form districts too small. The result is 
that, unless the district be densely populated, school population and 
enrolment will be low. In these smaller schools the full advantage 
of complete grading can not be obtained. High-school classes are 
likely to be small and lack interest. The cost of conveyance is rela- 
tively higher where the number conveyed is small, especially where 
the pupils live widely separated on the roads. 

The disadvantages of small consolidated districts are especially 
felt in the finances of the school. In States where the apportionment 
54634°— Bull. 232—10 6 



82 

of the state funds is based upon school population or enrolment or 
attendance, the larger district, other things being equal, will receive 
the greater apportionment, thus relieving local taxation. A district 
of from 25 to 36 square miles, with taxable property of $500,000 and 
upward, can safely undertake consolidation without fear of finding 
it burdensome. In other words, consolidation is feasible in practi- 
cally all sections where farm land is worth $40 and over per acre, 
excepting where physical or topographical conditions interpose ob- 
stacles. But generally in sections where farm land has that value 
topographical and road conditions also favor consolidation and con- 
veyance of pupils. 

SURVEY OF LAND VALUES OF STATES FOR PURPOSES OF DETERMINING AREAS OF POSSIBLE 

CONSOLIDATION. 

In some States or sections thereof, values of farm land are fairly 
uniform ; in others, owing to a variety of conditions, they vary widely. 
Hence there may be parts of States where, financially, rural-school 
consolidation is feasible and even advisable, while in others it is in- 
advisable if not impossible. Wherever such varied conditions exist, 
knowledge of the area of possible consolidation may be useful for de- 
termining the feasibility of the consolidated school system on a state 
or county plan, and for centering systematic campaigns for consoli- 
dation in certain localities. Knowledge of values of farm lands 
would be of assistance also in redisricting counties and parts of 
States into consolidated school districts, should conditions arise which 
would make possible the extension of consolidation into such sections. 

FAULTY DISTRICT FORMATION. 

A peculiar and economically injurious practice which obstructs 
consolidated as well as district school development in many States 
is undervaluation, or assessment of property for taxation at much 
less than its real value, a valuation of one-half, one-third, and in 
some States one-fourth of the actual worth being not unusual. Such 
a custom necessitates a tax rate which, though it always appears high, 
is not so. 

The writer has knowledge of a consolidated school which combines 
four one-room schools and has only 14 square miles of contributory 
territorjr. The levy for school taxes under the present custom of 
assessing land and property at a fourth of its value is 19 mills 
on the dollar, and the experience of this school has brought consoli- 
dation sentiment in all the neighboring townships and counties to 
a temporary standstill. The same amount of school taxes in this dis- 
trict, if property were assessed at three-fourths of its real value, would 
require a tax rate of only 6.3 mills, which is low compared with rates 

No. 232 



in other sections of the country. If the boundaries of this district 
had been extended as far as was consistent with a practicable convey- 
ance service, the tax area would have been more than doubled and 
the tax rate reduced one-half. The argument which this discussion 
of land values and tax rates is intended to emphasize is that social 
and financial reasons strongly urge the formation of large districts, 
and that, as a rule, a small district can not give so strong financial 
support to the school as a large one. 

On level or rolling lands the districts may advantageously be 30 
to 36 square miles in extent; in hilly sections, where steep grades 
exist, from 20 to 30 square miles. In districts sparsely settled and 
likely to remain so, and in mild climates where the pupils can walk 
to meet the wagons, the districts may be 30 to 60 square miles or 
even larger. In illustration of the foregoing discussion, attention is 
called to cases of faulty district formation where larger districts 
would be a decided advantage. 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS IN MECCA TOWNSHIP, TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO. 

This township is traversed by Mosquito Creek, which divides it 
into two nearly equal parts and has for jea.rs formed a social divid- 
ing line. After several adjoining townships had consolidated and 
the voters in Mecca township had begun to consider the step seri- 
ously, that imaginary dividing line began to assert itself. Opinion 
as to where the school should be located was divided and the result 
was that each half of the township organized its own consolidated 
school, though the bridge across the stream made the transfer of 
all. pupils to a single school entirely practicable. This division 
was unfortunate, socially, because the present arrangement tends 
to perpetuate the divisions of the township ; financially, because of 
duplication of teachers, buildings, and equipment; and education- 
ally, because in the same county townships with one consolidated 
school have stronger schools with more pupils in high school and 
longer high-school courses. (See fig. 24.) 

East Mecca school enrolls 74, West Mecca school 86 pupils; the 
school population of neither community is large enough for a strong 
high school, and only one year of high school is taught. One five- 
room building would serve in the place of the present two build- 
ings of three rooms each, and five teachers could easily do the work 
which is at present done by six. 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AT LEWISTON, WINONA COUNTY, MINN. 

The district, as at present constituted (fig. 25), is indicated by 
heavy lines, the consolidated schoolhouse and the former one-room 
district schools by symbols. The location of the consolidated school 
in the northeast corner of the district suggests that it could easily be 

No. 232 



84 

made the center of a much larger district. The boundaries of adjoin- 
ing districts which could, because of convenient roads and other rea- 
sons, be added to the consolidated district and thereby place the con- 
solidated school building in the center of a well proportioned district, 
are indicated by broken lines. 




LEGEND 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL H 

STARTING POINT OF SCHOOL WA60N q_^ 

ROAD /l ~ 

TOWN -■ 

Fig. 24. — Map of Mecca township, Trumbull County, Ohio, 1907. 
Area of township, 25 square miles. Valuation, $408,372. Children of educable age, 222. 
Land level, sandy loam and clayey loam, not well drained; price (1906), from $30 to $50 
per acre. Location of present consolidated schools shown by symbol. The logical location 
of the consolidated school, if the township had but one, is indicated by the consolidated- 
school symbol in light lines. It is near the geographical center of the township. 

At present the school is laboring under the disadvantage of too 
small a contributory area. 

There are three school-wagon routes, the longest o\ miles in length. 
The same wagons could serve routes 5 miles in length and convey 

No. 232 



85 

more children. A larger district would distribute the tax burden 
more equitably, contribute to greatly increased attendance, and draw 
a larger apportionment from the state funds. 




LEGEND 

DISCONTINUED DISTRICT SCHOOL X 

DISTRICT SCHOOL S3 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL HI 

BOUNDARY OF PRESENT CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT. _— 

BOUNDARY OF CON SOU DATED DISTRICT ENLARGED AS PROPOSED 

ROAD—. -^ 

STEAM ROAD , , , 

TOWN HH 



Fig. 25. — Map of Lewiston consolidated school district, Winona County, Minn., 1908. 

Valuation, $307,527. Area, 13| square miles. The district was formed by the consoli- 
dation of the one-room schools Nos. 23, 24, and 93 with No. 22, the original village school 
at Lewiston village. In the form suggested by the dotted boundary lines, the consolidated 
district would have an area of 29J square miles instead of 13|, and the valuation of 
property, taxed to support this school, would be $6S9,000. 
No. 232 



86 



JOHN SWANEY CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL, M'NABB, PUTNAM COUNTY, ILL. 

Three one-room district schools are consolidated in this school (see 
fig. 26). The building, though located near the geographical center 
of the township, serves less than one-half its population, and the 
services of this highly successful school are too valuable to be re- 
stricted to so limited an area. It would be cheaper to convey children 




LEGEND 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL n 

STARTING POINT OF SCHOOL WAGON. „ 

ROAD. 

TOWN. WM 

Fig. 26. — Map of Magnolia Township, Putnam County, 111., siowing the location of the 
John Swaney consolidated school district, 1908. 
Area of district, 141 square miles; valuation, $160,000. Starting point of school 
wagons indicated by arrows with circle at base. The two school wagons convey 24 and 
30 pupils, respectively. 

4 and 5 miles to this school than to duplicate it on another 15 square 
mile tract adjoining. 

Land in this section of Illinois is level and productive and worth 
from $75 to $175 per acre, the average being about $135. Real prop- 
erty is assessed at one- fourth its value. 

No. 232 



87 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AT KINSMAN, TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO. 

This township illustrates a case of lack of cooperation. A "Special 
school district," indicated on map (fig. 28), existed for several years 
previous to consolidation. When consolidation of the district schools 
of the township outside the special district was planned, a proposal 
to join with it and have one school for the entire township failed of 
support and resulted in the organization of a consolidated district. 




Fig. 27. — John Swaney consolidated school, McNabb, Putnam County, 111. 

Building erected in 1906 at a cost of $15,000. Total enrolment 90, 72 of whom are 
enrolled in the grades and 18 in the high-school course. Per cent of enrolled pupils in 
daily attendance, 87. Number of school wagons, 2. 

This building stands in a 24-acre park, donated by Mr. John Swaney, one of Illinois' 
most substantial, generous, and liberal-minded farmers. Upon the grounds are a shed for 
teams and wagons and a dwelling for the janitor. In 1908 a school garden was planted 
and a small orchard set out by the pupils. Adjoining the school grounds is a substation 
of the Illinois Experiment Station, consisting of a 10-acre farm planted in a crop-rotation 
scheme, and trial fields of alfalfa. 

In the four-year high-school course agriculture is taught for three and one-half years 
by a principal who is a college graduate and practical farmer. Manual training and use 
and handling of tools is also taught, and facilities for teaching home economics to girls are 
ample and complete. 



By vote, the farmers of the townships showed a preference for locat- 
ing the school in the village and the consolidated school building was 
erected within 200 yards of the special district school. 

By cooperation a very substantial saving to the entire township 
could have been effected, not only in the initial cost of school build- 
ings but in the cost of maintenance. 

No. 232 



The valuation of the special school district is $426,947 ; that of the 
consolidated school district $486,095, a total of $913,092. With these 
valuations combined, one single school could be maintained at a tax 
of at most 8 mills. 




LEGEND 

BOUNDARY Or CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT. ROAD. 

DISCONTINUED DISTRICT SCHOOL.... X STEAM ROAD.. 

PRESENT HIGH SCHOOL.. C SECTION LINE. 

PRESENT CONSOUDATED SCHOOL n TOWN. 



Fig. 28. — Map of Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, 1908. 

Area of township 25 square miles ; area of consolidated district 19i square miles. Area 
of special school district 5J square miles. Population of township 1,200 (village 400, 
rural 800). The consolidated school unites what were originally seven district schools, 
shown on map. Roads are somewhat irregular. 

TOPOGRAPHY. 



The movement of remodeling the country school system by means 
of consolidation has not followed the lines of least physical resistance. 
It certainly is not the outcome of easy financial, geographical, or 



No. 232 



89 

topographical conditions. Its occasional existence in widely sepa- 
rated communities suggests that it is essentially a culture movement. 
Consolidation with its attendant service of public conveyance may 
eventually extend over practically two-thirds of the agricultural 
area of continental United States. Conformation of surface will 
make impracticable consolidation over the remaining one-third. But 
even there, except in the most rugged and inaccessible mountain 
districts, unions of two or more schools may be possible. Many of 
the isolated mountain valleys, generally closely cultivated and thickly 
settled, afford excellent opportunities for school consolidation by 
means of roads of convenient grades. Rivers and lakes offer obstacles 
in the way of district making, but such difficulties should not be 
overestimated. The mistake is commonly made of deciding upon 
the location of the schoolhouse first and attempting to conform the 
district to that location, while the reverse is the more logical, or at 
least more practical, method, i. e., to first lay off a district of ample 
proportions conformable to natural obstacles, financial and other con- 
ditions, and afterward locate the schoolhouse. 

PROJECTED CONSOLIDATION IN DOUGLAS COUNTY, MINN. 

In regions where varied topographical conditions exist a pre- 
liminary redistricting of the county should always precede consolida- 
tion of districts on an extensive scale; consolidation of groups of the 
more easily united districts might create conditions which would 
make consolidation of the remaining districts in the county difficult, 
if not impossible. 

This idea is illuminated by the conditions, for instance, in the 
lake regions of Minnesota, and accordingly a county plan of school 
consolidation has been worked out in that State for Douglas County, 
whose 250 or more lakes of various sizes occupy one-fifth of its area. 
In planning consolidated schools for the rural children in this 
county the financial difficulties interpose more serious obstacles than 
the geographical, peculiar as they are. 

The general contour of the county is gently rolling, and in the 
northwest portion hilly. Roads are well graded, many graveled, 
and all being rapidly improved, the lake bottoms affording unlimited 
supplies of good road gravel. 

Douglas is an agricultural county. Grain is the principal crop 
and dairying is beginning to get a foothold. The population is to 
a large extent of foreign extraction, and nationalities are segregated 
by localities. A few private schools are conducted in foreign lan- 
guages. Although some of the farms are large, the average will 
probably not exceed 120 acres. The tendency is toward small hold- 
ings. The value of the land varies largely with ownership and im- 

No. 232 



90 

provement, but $40 per acre (1908) represents a fair average market 
A'alue. 

Exclusive of the " independent district " of Alexandria, the rural 
school population (5-20 years) of the county, according to the Census 
of 1900, was 5,958, or an average of 9.7 per square mile. 




D/$TBICT SCHOOL _. 

PRESENT GRADED SCHOOL __ 

PRESENT HISH SCHOOL 

PROPOSED CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL- 



CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT BOUNDARY.. 

TOWNSHIP LINE. _ 

RAILROAD. „ 



Fig. 29. — Map of Douglas County, Minn., illustrating a tentative plan of rural school 
consolidation and demonstrating that in lake sections of the country convenient school 
wagon routes can be planned successfully. 

Area, 720 square miles ; population in 1905, 18,780. The county seat is Alexandria 
(population of 3,051). It is organized as an independent school district and has a 
graded and high school. Osakis also has an independent district with a high school. 
Evansville maintains a graded school with two years of high school. Rural pupils desir- 
ing high-school advantages may arrange to attend at one of these three schools. The 
location of the proposed consolidated schools is shown by the usual symbol. The probable 
attendance in the grades and high school is indicated by the numbers before " G." and 
" H. S.," respectively, near the symbol. 

The total enrolment is 3,433; there are 98 district schools, with 
an average daily attendance of 20.7 pupils per school, or 2,029 in daily 
attendance, and the attendance is therefore 58 per cent of the enrol- 
ment. The project of consolidation here outlined, if adopted, would 
reduce the number of schools from 98 to 24 and increase the enrol- 
No. 232 



91 

ment from 3,433 to close to 4,000. There are, in the entire county, 
65 rural pupils in attendance at high school (1908) ; this number 
would be increased by consolidation to approximately 275. Two of 
the consolidated districts would be organized as consolidated graded 
schools. Owing to their smallness and lack of pupils they would 
hardly support high school courses. The remaining schools would 
be typical consolidated schools with high-school courses of two 
years or more. 

The geographical obstacles which the 250 and more lakes seem to 
place in the way of planning school wagon routes have been overcome 
with less difficulty than was anticipated at the outset. 

TENTATIVE PLAN FOR CONSOLIDATION OF DISTRICT XIV, DOUGLAS COUNTY, MINN. 

Consolidation district No. XIV possesses numerous advantages 
which place it in position to take the initiative in the consolidation 
movement in Douglas County. 

In order to put this proposition into more concrete form the details 
of a plan of consolidation have been worked out for that district, and 
the results appear in a map (fig. 30) which shows the boundaries of 
the district, the roads, the location of the homes of the pupils, number 
of pupils attending school from each home, and the school wagon 
routes. 

Nelson, a village of several houses, being the business center of a 
considerable scope of surrounding country, was decided upon as the 
logical location for a consolidated school. The total enrolment at 
this school would be about 240, of which 45 would be in high school. 
The number of pupils conveyed, as based upon the enrolment during 
1907, would be 136, which includes high-school pupils. 

After the redemption of bonds and the cessation of interest, the tax 
rate for school purposes would be 9.7 mills, which is not an excess- 
ively high rate. 

ROADS. 

While good roads cheapen transportation of pupils and insure 
regularity and promptness of service, they were not originally instru- 
mental in suggesting school consolidation. In fact, consolidation pro- 
ceeds quite independently of road conditions. 

The first school consolidation in Massachusetts in 1869 antedated 
road improvements on any extensive scale. Since then public im- 
provements in that State have been placed on a permanent basis and 
good roads abound. Yet a part of the 17,000 pupils hauled daily to 
consolidated schools, for which service that State spends annually 
over $292,000, are hauled over dirt roads. 

No. 232 



92 



In Ohio, consolidation had its inception in the northeastern part 
of the State. The soil in that section is, with the exception of some 
sandy areas, generally a heavy clay loam, inclined when wet to puddle 
and to become heavy, deeply rutted, and tenacious. Nearly all the 




LEGEND 

FARM HOME FROM WHICH CHILDREN ATTEND SCHOOL . 

SMALL FIGURES, NUMBER OF CHILDREN ATTENDING SCHOOL OR HIGH SCHOOL 
FROM THAT HOME 

PROPOSED CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL H 

DISTRICT SCHOOL _3 

STARTING POINT OF SCHOOL WAGON. — O— »• 

STEAM ROAD. __ .,,,, , ,,, 

ROAD. 

Fig. 30. — Tentative plan of consolidation district No. XIV, Douglas County, Minn., in 

detail. 
Area, 29 square miles; valuation (estimated), $199,984. The arrows point in the direc- 
tion of the routes leading to school. 

roads are dirt roads. In the townships of Gustavus, Kinsman, 
Greene, Kingsville, etc., now famous for their consolidated schools and 
in recent years visited by hundreds of educators and school officials, 
the roads are practically all dirt roads. Macadamization of roads, 
encouraged by state aid, is just being begun. In contradistinction to 

No. 232 



93 

this is northwestern Ohio, which has excellent macadamized roads and 
yet consolidation has there made very little progress. In the blue- 
grass region of Kentucky, where farm land ranges from $50 to $250 
per acre and which has 10,000 miles of solid, macadamized, limestone 
roads, consolidation has not yet been adopted. This almost ideal com- 
bination of wealth, sufficient to support the highest type of consoli- 
dated schools, and superb roads, which would make transportation 
of pupils very cheap and easy, has never tempted the rural popu- 
lation to take up consolidation, and as late as 1909 there was not one 
consolidated rural school in Kentucky. 

In Indiana, where consolidation is most extensive, and where state 
laws aid consolidation as in no other State, road improvement and 
rural school consolidation are moving ahead together. Good gravel 
roads cover a large part of the consolidated area, yet probably one- 
third of the hauling is over dirt roads, which become excessively 
muddy in the early spring months. 

With all these facts in mind, it is clear that in the formation of 
consolidated districts the roads or road conditions play only an inci- 
dental part, and bad roads form no greater obstacle to school con- 
solidation than they do to local, social, and business communication ; 
in fact, consolidation will assist in directing public attention to the 
needs of permanent road improvement. 

The length of school wagon routes is an important factor in de- 
termining the size and form of school districts; their size should be 
limited by the distances from which the school wagons can convey 
pupils with safety, within reasonable time, and at moderate cost. 

Of the diverse objections to school consolidation, the one that the 
pupils living near the extremities of the longer wagon routes spend 
considerable time in the school wagons, is probably the most valid. 
Though this objection concerns only a small proportion of the pupils, 
it demands careful consideration in planning a wagon route or a con- 
solidation district. Still, where necessity compels, wagon routes may 
be planned rather long. Five or' six miles, or one hour's travel on 
ordinary roads, may be considered a fair limit. Ordinarily there will 
be only a few routes of so great length, as those of most schools average 
about 4 miles. 

In sections with irregular roads certain misconceptions prevail re- 
garding the supposed advantages of straight and section-line roads. 
In fact, not a few farmers believe that section-line roads possess all 
the advantages and that it is almost impossible to plan school wagon 
routes for an entire consolidation district where there are only ir- 
regular roads. To show the error of that opinion, it is only necessary 
to cite the fact that of the existing consolidated schools about as 
many are located in counties which have irregular or meandering 
roads as there are in counties which have regular or section-line roads. 

No. 232 



94 

A large number of examples illustrating this could be introduced, 
applying mostly to individual consolidated districts or at best to 
parts of counties. But as it is particularly desirable to show that 
irregular roads or hilly and rolling land do not necessarily interfere 
with the success of a county system of school consolidation, a tenta- 
tive scheme of consolidation was planned for a county possessing such 
characteristics. 



legend 

proposed consolidated school 

boundary of consolidated district. 

ROAD 

ROAD COVERED Br WAGON ROUTE ■■— 

STARTING POINT OR SCHOOL WAGON. _ 

ELECTRIC ROAD. __ 

STEAM ROAD. ~~*~* 

TOWN.... _\23 




Pig. 31. — Map of Fairfax County, Va., illustrating a tentative plan of rural school consoli- 
dation in a county with irregular roads. 

Area, 443 square miles. The location of the proposed consolidated schools is indicated 
by the usual symbol. The numbers before " G." and " H. S." give the enrolment in the 
grades and high school classes of the proposed schools. Arrows point in the direction of 
the wagon route to schools. 



PROJECTED CONSOLIDATION IN FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA. 

School population in 1905, white, 4,681 ; colored, 2,015. 
This agricultural county is at present divided into six school dis- 
tricts, which are subdivided into 63 subdistricts, the affairs of which 

No. 232 



95 

are administered by six district boards. The county has four incor- 
porated towns with special school districts — Falls Church, Vienna, 
Fairfax Court House, and Herndon — and in planning the consoli- 
dated districts the special districts have been left intact to serve the 
constituencies for which they were created. 

As the smaller towns and villages of the county are rural, and as 
there are no industrial villages or settlements, the proposed consoli- 
dated schools would be rural to the same extent as are the schools 
which they would displace. 

Six districts, containing 11 consolidated schools, are planned. This 
would necessitate the convej^ance of about 1,350 school children, re- 
quiring about 65 school wagons. 

The school wagon routes were traced after actually driving over 
them and locating the home of each pupil. The map shows accurately 
the proposed wagon routes and demonstrates that they can be planned 
advantageously under existing conditions in this section of Virginia, 
as they without doubt could be in all Southern States. 

The general contour of the county is hilly and rolling. In the 
southern half the soil is sandy; on the northern half clayey. The 
roads in the Mount Vernon and Falls Church districts are in very 
fair condition, some of them graveled. Two main turnpikes, the 
" Georgetown and Leesburg " and the "Alexandria and Richmond," 
traverse the county east and west. Although the length of the pro- 
jected wagon routes was kept within a 5-mile limit wherever pos- 
sible, a few exceeded that limit. Wherever a road is the dividing 
line between two districts, the children on both sides of the road would 
be conveyed to the nearest school, thus avoiding running two wagons 
over the same route. In consequence of this arrangement an exchange 
of tuition might become necessary between the districts. In one district 
the electric road affords a very convenient means of transportation. 

All the advantages which would be secured to the respective dis- 
tricts by the larger outlay for educational purposes can not be stated 
in terms of money nor demonstrated by means of statistical tables. 
The following observations, however, may be made on some of the 
advantages to be gained in Fairfax County by consolidation, and 
suggest that funds, if wisely expended upon a consolidated school, 
would probably accomplish more actual work and secure more real 
results than if spent upon district schools : 

(1) The number of schoolhouses would be reduced from 63 to 11. 

(2) The present average annual school term of 6.9 months would 
be lengthened to 8 months. 

(3) Since the consolidated schools, as planned, would afford 8 
years of elementary and 2 to 4 years of high-school work, the in- 
creased expenditure would add 2, 3, or 4 years to the present edu- 
cational period of every white child in the county. 

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96 

(4) At present only 56 per cent of the total number of pupils 
enrolled attend school. With consolidation an average attendance 
of 75 per cent or over can easily be maintained. 

(5) In some of the thinly populated portions of Fairfax County 
it has been impossible so to locate district schoolhouses as to make 
them easily accessible to all school children. 

(6) Under consolidation higher teaching standards could be re- 
quired; liberal compensation would attract experienced and skilled 
teachers and induce resident teachers to prepare more thoroughly 
for their profession. Of the present teaching force 2 teachers hold 
collegiate certificates, 9 hold life diplomas. 18 teachers' certificates 
of the first grade, 24 of the second grade, 9 of the third grade, and 
1 a special certificate. 

(7) There being 138 school clays in the year and, inclusive of 
colored schools, 81 district schoolhouses in Fairfax County, the county 
school superintendent can, by exercising the greatest diligence, de- 
vote to each subdistrict school only 1.7 days, including the time spent 
in travel from school to school. With 11 consolidated schools, the 
superintendent would be able to spend 14 days annually at each 
school. In other words, he would be enabled to superintend thor- 
oughly, to direct the work of the teachers, and probably to teach some 
agriculture and other of the more difficult studies, to give lectures, to 
visit patrons, and to inspire interest in the school. 

(8) The exact number of Fairfax County children attending the 
graded and high schools in Washington, D. C, and in Alexandria — ■ 
the nearest accessible city schools — could not be ascertained. After 
exhaustive inquiries among parents who send their children to schools 
in the District of Columbia and elsewhere the writer concludes that 
$15,000 is a very conservative estimate of the annual expenditure for 
railroad fare, car fare, board, and tuition for children attending 
schools outside the county. This sum alone, averaging about $1,360 
for each of the proposed 11 consolidated schools, would very nearly 
defray the cost of a first-class conveyance system, and being expended 
within the county would redound to its material benefit. 

(9) The number of rural school districts is needlessly large. At 
present the average territory contributory to each rural schoolhouse 
for whites is 7.1 square miles. Although there is in localities a de- 
mand for additional schoolhouses, 9 schools in the county have barely 
enough pupils in attendance to continue legal existence, the legal 
minimum of attendance being 10. 

(10) Consolidation with transportation would probably, as sta- 
tistics collected at hundreds of consolidated schools in many States 
indicate, immediately increase the average daily attendance in the 
schools of Fairfax County from 1,289, the present number, to at least 
1,650, and would add a high-school attendance of 280. 

No. 232 



97 

(11) As consolidation makes graded schools possible, all pupils 
would be graded in uniform classes. Change of residence from one 
district to another would not affect the class work or grade of pupils 
or retard their progress. 

CONCLUSION. 

Consolidated rural schools promise to supplant the scattered one- 
and two-room rural schools over a large part of the United States 
and to change the present trend, methods, and results of rural educa- 
tion. The rate of j^rogress of school consolidation during the past 
five years, if sustained during the next few decades, should see a 
well-coordinated rural school system nearing its completion. What 
has been accomplished up to the present is a distinct gain to American 
education. The movement has grown quietly and few are aware of 
its real extent. In fact, many educators have not yet grasped the full 
significance of rural school consolidation. 

The numerous advantages of the consolidated as compared with 
the district school are secured through free convej^ance of pupils, and 
are impossible of attainment except by that means. Although this 
unique but indispensable feature is, when consolidation is first 
broached in a community, responsible for most of the opposition, 
adverse opinion usually ceases as soon as the advantages of trans- 
portation are understood. In communities where consolidation has 
had a fair trial, fully 95 per cent of the school patrons give it their 
indorsement and hearty support. 

During the first twenty years after its inception consolidation was 
characterized by slow growth. The natural conservatism of school 
patrons was largely responsible for this. A second disadvantage was 
the lack of a scientific s} 7 stem of assessment, taxation, and school 
financing, which would encourage or permit consolidation on an 
extensive or state scale. Although both still exist, modern condi- 
tions are breaking down the traditions of the old school system, and 
the district schoolhouse itself is in many places disappearing. School 
financing is receiving attention from economists and statesmen and is 
being put upon a scientific basis. In States not largely endowed 
with permanent school funds, many sources of revenue are at present 
overlooked which, if properly exploited, would yield ample funds for 
state aid of graded and high schools, transportation of pupils, and 
the teaching of vocational subjects — legitimate uses of public money. 

The idea of a county system of consolidation has been emphasized 
in this bulletin. An obstacle to extensive consolidation is lack of 
that cooperation which is necessary to the consolidation of many 
small, independent, one-room school districts. The temporary ob- 
literation of all district boundary lines and the redisricting of the 
54634°— Bull. 232—10 7 



98 

county into large districts, responding to the needs and organization 
of consolidated schools, affords a logical and convenient avenue of 
approach to the solution of the problem of rural school reconstruction. 

In some newly-settled portions of the country consolidation has 
met with marked favor among farmers, and the usual historical se- 
quence of district school, graded school, and high school has not been 
followed, the typical consolidated school being organized and built at 
the outset. Those communities were no doubt cognizant of the fact 
that by systematically planning their school system and following a 
definite educational programme along lines of consolidation they were 
gaining many years in educational progress. 

In financing, supervision, teaching, and attendance the consolidated 
possesses some advantages over the district school. Money expended 
through the consolidated school yields larger results. The chief 
defects of the district school system — low attendance and lack of 
articulation with other schools — are entirely corrected by the con- 
solidation system. About 1,800 typical and graded consolidated and 
2,000 union schools in all parts of the country are demonstrating by 
their successful operation how educational opportunities may be 
brought to an additional million country boys and girls. The in- 
creases in elementary and high school attendance at consolidated 
schools have been remarkably large. At a conservative estimate 
15,000 more country children are attending schools at this moment 
than would be if the old system had continued in their districts. 
Consolidation keeps the pupils longer in school at a time when a 
day's schooling is the most valuable. 

The introduction of agriculture and home economics into the upper 
grades of the elementary and high-school courses of the existing con- 
solidated schools is progressing as rapidly as competent teachers of 
these studies can be obtained. These schools lead into the agricultural 
high school, state college, or state normal school, and educational 
forces are becoming closely linked with the, farm home and farm 
affairs. That a large proportion of the well-prepared consolidated 
school pupils would enter agricultural high schools or colleges can 
scarcely be more a matter of doubt than that in consolidated schools 
more elementary graduates pass into the high school. The evolution 
of the rural school into the consolidated school in part bridges the 
gap between the rural school and the college of agriculture. The 
rapidly multiplying large secondary agricultural high schools and 
agricultural courses in local high schools are completing that bridge. 
The large separate agricultural high schools, with courses of study 
suitable for pupils who have had the advantage of one, two, or three 
high-school years in the consolidated school, seem especially adapted 
to supplement the abbreviated high-school course of the consolidated 
school. 

No. 232 



99 

The ultimate success of the agricultural high school is largely 
dependent upon that of the consolidated school. The present expen- 
diture of over $1,000,000 annually for public conveyance of country 
school children, suggests that the American farmer is now prepar- 
ing, on a stupendous scale, patiently to build up a truly American 
farm life. And the consolidated school organized as a country life 
school is to be a substantial part of its foundation. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

The work of collecting statistics can not be successful without the 
assistance and cooperation of individuals who possess basic facts. 
Those collected in this investigation were contributed by state and 
county officials, county school superintendents, and teachers of rural 
schools. It is impossible to give personal credit to each, and the 
writer is obliged to express to all collectively his sincere thanks. 

The writer is especially indebted to Mr. C. M. Daugherty, of the 
Bureau of Statistics, for helpful suggestions and much assistance 
in the arrangement of tables and other work connected with this 
publication. 

In a number of localities study of details demanded extended work 
and frequent consultations, and especial thanks are due the following : 
Hon. Fassett A. Cotton, state superintendent of public instruction. 
Indianapolis, Ind. ; Mr. Ernest C. Gray, principal of the " Kinsman 
Centralized School," Kinsman, Ohio; Mr. C. E. Benedict, of the 
" Greene Central School," Greensburg, Ohio ; Mr. H. A. Diehl, of 
the " Johnston Central School," Farmclale, Ohio ; Mr. Samuel D. 
Symmes, trustee of Union Township, Crawf ordsville, Ind. ; Mr. W. A. 
La Mater, superintendent of Delaware County schools, Muncie, Ind. ; 
Mr. George P. Glenn, superintendent of schools of Duval County, 
Jacksonville, Fla. ; Mr. Thomas Erickson, superintendent of Douglas 
County schools, Alexandria, Minn. ; Mr. George Howard, superin- 
tendent of Olmsted County schools, Rochester, Minn. ; Mr. W. D. 
Hall, superintendent of schools of Fairfax County, Burke, Ya. ; Miss 
Ivy Wilson, superintendent of schools of Ada County, Boise, Idaho ; 
and Miss Cora Bean, superintendent of Canyon County schools, Cald- 
well, Idaho. 

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